In light of the recent events in this country, I know many people are looking for ways to show appreciation to our law enforcement, including police officers, constables, and sheriffs. With some inspiration from another blog post, a friend and I teamed up to make police appreciation bags for our local officers.
Shopping List
We chose items with patrolling officers in mind, since they are in their cars and on the go all day/night. Here’s what we included in each police appreciation bag:
- Gatorade
- Travel tissues
- Car air freshener
- Pens
- Crackers/pretzels
- Granola bar
- Hand sanitizer
- Instant coffee packet
- Mints
- Hard candy
- Other candy
To pack up each bag, you’ll need:
- Bags with handles
- Ribbon
- Cardstock for printed tags – free printable later in this blog post!
I highly recommend partnering up with someone for this project. It was nice to split up the shopping list and to have help stuffing bags!
Some close-ups…
Assembling the Bags
We opened and lined up 20 bags, and doing one item at a time, we had the kids help us stuff the bags. [I’m not talented enough to manage that effort and take photos, so please excuse the lack of photos for this part!]
Once everything was distributed among the bags, we tied on the tags that I’d printed and cut in advance. The wording was from a photo of a tag I saw on Pinterest, and I just recreated it inside an officer badge outline. These look great on blue card stock and print 4 tags per page. Just cut them into rectangles (or the outline of the badge if you’re feeling ambitious!) and use a single hole punch at the top for the ribbon.
We sent the kids off to play while we tied the tags to the handles of each bag with silver curling ribbon.
Delivering the Bags
Then we drove to the local constables office to deliver the police appreciation bags. A couple of officers came out to collect them, which was exciting for the kids to see, and they even had some cute treats for the kids like coloring books, stickers, and balls. They were so sweet and appreciative! As we were leaving, a patrol car pulled up out front, so we delivered two bags to the officers inside. Bonus!
The sticker badges were a hit!
You could also keep a few bags in your car for the next time you run into an officer in your neighborhood or at a restaurant, etc.
It’s always great to get kids involved in service, whether they know anything about the current events or not! Having them help pick things at the store, stuff the bags, carry the bags into the station…all great lessons in giving! Let’s show some love to the men & women who keep our communities safe every day!
Be sure to check out my firefighter appreciation gifts and free printable tags too!
Shopping List: