After loss, Batesville woman fosters cause

— After the death of their only son, Zachary, in a canoeing accident in 2015, Lisa Lillard and her husband, Darren, searched for ways to honor Zachary’s memory in the community.

“Christmas was always just a really special time in our family, full of surprises and just spending time together, just a really special time to us,” she said.

In honor of her son and with the holiday season in mind, Lillard kick-started Mingle and Jingle, a November holiday shopping event, last year to support Shop With a Cop. Shop With a Cop is an Independence County Foster and Adoptive Parents Association program that gives foster children a gift card and holiday-shopping quality time at Walmart with a local law enforcement official or first responder each December.

One hundred percent of Mingle and Jingle proceeds go to Shop With a Cop. This year’s donation was given in honor of Zachary, who was 19 at the time of the accident, and Will Olson and Camdon Osborn, both 15 and of Batesville, who died in a car accident in 2015.

Unlike its first year, this year’s Mingle and Jingle was a two-night event. On Nov. 4, a private event for the event’s 40 sponsors and their guests was held. On Nov. 5, the shopping was open to the public and included items from local boutiques, artisans and craftsmen.

“Everyone was welcome, and there was no entry fee at all,” Lillard said of the public event.

In Mingle and Jingle’s first year, 500 attended, and $25,000 was raised, allowing foster children in the area to each receive $160 for a gift. This year, 1,400 people attended the fundraiser, $45,000 was raised, and each child in Independence and Jackson counties, and some surrounding areas, will receive $200 to use to buy gifts.

“Honestly, the community coming together to raise $45,000 in one weekend is a testament to the kind of community we have,” said Lillard, chairwoman of Mingle and Jingle. “Everybody wants to give; they just want to know the money goes directly to the children.”

The idea for a shopping-based fundraiser stemmed from Lillard’s love of shopping, she said.

“Honestly, I wanted to do two things: I wanted to honor my son with something good, and I also wanted to thank all my friends and church family that had people who supported my husband, Darren, and I through the loss of our child,” she said. “It was going to start at our home [last year], and it quickly expanded to, ‘We can’t get this many people in our home.’”

Charles Dean, president of the Independent County Foster and Adoptive Parents Association, said Mingle and Jingle has helped the community band together to raise money for children.

“It’s been great for the businesses in our area to give them an area to market their things and have people spend their money locally,” he said. “It’s also a wonderful cause to take care of the children.”

Lillard said she chose the Shop With a Cop program because of its work with children and because it had lost sponsorship funding in 2014, when each foster child received a $50 gift card.

This year, because of the amount raised, foster children from or placed in Independence County will be served during Shop With a Cop, along with children in Cave City and Harrisburg, in Jackson County and at the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch in Batesville.

Lillard said Shop With a Cop is a beneficial way to change a child’s perspective of law enforcement officials because a child’s most notable interaction with an officer is when he or she is being removed from the home. During Shop With a Cop, she said, a child may seem nervous at first, but by the time he or she makes it to the register to check out, he or she is often holding hands with an officer.

“The police officers came in armed with guns and forcibly removed them from their home, or otherwise, police are often seen as bad guys by parents who are involved in some of these things parents are involved in,” Dean said. “When [children] find out that police officers are friends and helpers, it changes their whole outlook on police officers and first responders.”

During Shop With a Cop, children often pick out bicycles, dollhouses or electronic devices.

This year’s Mingle and Jingle took place at the Barnett Building, and community members donated time to paint the door and windows. Food and alcohol were also donated for the occasion, Lillard said.

Because there were so many vendors to choose from for this year’s Mingle and Jingle, leading to a waiting list, event organizers will have an application process for vendors next year, Lillard said.

Lillard said she thanks Mingle and Jingle’s 20 committee members, attendees, vendors and sponsors for the success of the event’s second year.

Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.

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