CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — Morning show anchor Matthew White was live in the WCIA-3 backlot on Tuesday morning promoting the 2022 Day of Giving and WCIA-3’s Victory Over Violence campaign.

White was joined by Santa Claus and Rantoul Police Officer Christina Reifsteck.

“We love being a part of this program,” said Reifsteck. “The United Way has been so generous. The Victory Over Violence program has been so generous with their Shop with a Cop program, and one of the things that we get to do is as a police department is really connect with our community and it’s a community event.”

“We take the students. We call the families. We find out how many siblings they have and then our officers and families will show up and we go shopping with the kids for the kids and their families,” said Reifsteck. “It’s a real great piece of engagement and we really love taking it to the next level, letting those kids see what we do when we go shopping and so it’s very personal for us.”

White then turned to Santa Claus because as White explained, there are kids out there who make bad decisions and we’re here to help support them and give them alternatives to those decisions.

“Be good because I’m coming,” said Santa.

WCIA-3 will be accepting donations in their backlot until 7 p.m.