More than two dozen local children hit the toy aisles in Walmart on Friday, with law enforcement officers in tow.

It was the annual “Cops and Kids” event sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 41. Law enforcement officers, both active and retired, from several jurisdictions came to take kids shopping for Christmas.

“I feel really blessed,” said Toni Pretlow, who was shopping with her three children as well as Sgt. Jason Brinkley of the Isle of Wight Sheriff’s Office.

The lodge fundraises throughout the year to do the Cops and Kids event, plus other community service projects.

About 28 children participated on Friday in the North Main Street Walmart. Each child was given a budget of $100. The law enforcement officers helped the kids make decisions and kept a running total of the purchases.

The toy department was crowded, but most of the children thought of others in their family, as well. Some bought jewelry for their mothers, as well as necessities for every member of their family.

Russell Moulton, who retired from the Western Tidewater Regional Jail, was especially touched by one thoughtful young man.

“His mom had to make him buy something for himself,” Moulton said. The teen even bought something for another one of the kids, whom he didn’t previously know.

Such generosity is the norm among the children who participate, who are referred by Social Services and the Western Tidewater Community Services Board.

“A majority of the kids we have helped get something for somebody else in their family,” said Allan Iversen, lodge director, who is retired from Suffolk Police Department. “To me, that’s the true meaning of what we’re doing.”

The lodge has been doing the program for more than 10 years.

“We try to help them have a good Christmas,” said Al Bremer, president of the lodge. He is retired after decades of service as a criminal investigator with the Suffolk Police Department and the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.

Bremer said it is important for the children to see law enforcement officers as a friendly face.

“It lets them know the police are there to help them,” he said. “We’re here to help as well as to enforce, but the help comes first.”

For Moulton, it was his first year coming to the event to help the kids shop.

“All it takes is time,” he said. “To put a smile on somebody’s face, it’s worth it.”

Departments that participated included Suffolk Sheriff’s Office, Isle of Wight Sheriff’s Office, Smithfield Police Department, Western Tidewater Regional Jail, Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport Police, as well as several retired officers from jurisdictions including Suffolk.