Tip a Cop fundraiser returns to Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE — As a matter of fact, yes, those are police officers and sheriff’s deputies cleaning tables, delivering hamburgers and drinks and occasionally breaking into song. The fifth annual Tip a Cop is scheduled for 5:30 to 8 p.m. Dec. 7 at Rock Top Burgers & Brew, 930 N. Stratford Rd. in Moses Lake.

Deputies from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and Moses Lake Police Department officers will be working the floor for that two-and-a-half-hour stretch, handing out menus and delivering meals and drinks. The tips they earn go to the Shop with a Cop program sponsored by each department.

Rock Top employees make a donation as well as sponsoring the event.

Not only do officers and deputies hand out those menus and clean those tables. In 2021 Ryan Rectenwald of the GCSO agreed to sing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” while filling water glasses. For a suitable tip, of course.

Shop with a Cop pairs children with GCSO and MLPD personnel and other participating agencies for an evening of Christmas shopping for the children, their families and friends. Traditionally the GCSO and MLPD work together on Shop With a Cop, and other local agencies sponsor events in other towns.

Children get a gift card from the sponsoring agency and a law enforcement officer, or sometimes a firefighter, as a shopping buddy. The children, their families and the personal shoppers all get pizza for dinner before they go shopping, and usually, there’s a visit from Santa too.

The GCSO and MLPD Shop with a Cop programs are supported by donations from the community and fundraisers sponsored by the agencies.