Deputy Claus

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Most businesses have Christmas parties during the holiday season, but that’s not the case for the Webster County Sheriff’s Department.

Instead of having a party for deputies and the staff, the department had different plans for those funds.

It’s all about giving this season for the people in law enforcement in Webster County, and this year, the spirit of the season is reaching throughout the county.

“We usually have a Christmas party every year, and it just happened that the building we usually use was not available the day we wanted to try to do the party, so we all pooled together and decided that instead of spending money on ourselves and the Christmas party, we would rather spend our money on a needy family or somebody of that nature,” says Webster County Chief Deputy Jeff Mann.

And from there, the Webster County Sheriff’s Department started spreading the word about collecting donations.

“This is something that’s near and dear to Sheriff Mitchell’s heart. We started this through Facebook I believe, and the donations just started pouring in and now, we’re kind of running out of room to put stuff,” says Webster County Investigator Landon Griffin.

Toys and food are out growing the Christmas tree at the Webster County Sheriff’s Department.

Donations have been pouring in for the last week and a half to help what started out as just one family, but now includes three families in need.

“We are a small department and we do rely on the citizens of the county to help a lot and of course, just like always, they really came through you know, and blessed us and made us able to bless someone else,” says Mann.

One of those generous citizens is Alvin Miller.

Earlier Friday morning, he stopped by the sheriff’s department to drop off a monetary donation.

Not long after, he was back again; this time it was to let Chief Deputy Jeff Mann know that he was going to be adding several flat screen TV’s to the donation pile.

“My wife sent me in for errands and I had a bit of time on my hands and I got to thinking that, rather than try to sell the items, if we could help out a family in need during this Christmas time, that we would do that instead.”

The department says the donated food will be enough for the families to have multiple Christmas meals.

“Even in Webster County, it’s hard to think that there’s people out here that don’t have food or don’t have enough food for the holidays, so that’s where the food came in. We were, they were doing a toy drive, but it kind of developed into a food drive also,” says Griffin.

One of the families receiving donations had all of their Christmas gifts stolen by thieves earlier this month.

Friday is the last day the department is collecting donations.

Churches in the area will be delivering everything to the families this evening.