Police officer donates sneakers to tennis program

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) —  A Wilmington Police officer is showing kids that there are many ways to help others and is giving back with the gift of sneakers.

Officer Brandon Chisholm is an active volunteer with Lenny Simpson’s One Love tennis program. The program offers year-round tennis training to kids in various parts of Wilmington.

“It gets me outside and interacting with the kids, out with the community,” Chisolm said. “It’s just all good things.”

Recently, he realized he needed to do a little more than dropping a tennis ball.

“I noticed that the child had on a couple pair of boots, like Ugg-style high top boots and I thought ‘I should probably do something about that,” he said.

So he made a call to a friend with the SNCO Wives Club at Camp Lejeune, with a simple request for shoes. Within two weeks they collected almost 50 pairs of sneakers for the kids.

“They’re willing to come out here everyday in this heat and may not have the right shoes on, so he took it upon himself to go out and start this shoe campaign,” Simpson said.

Simpson says having the partnership with law enforcement has had a positive impact on the kids and program.

“Working with these officers and seeing the kids get to know them and have that relationship, that to me is absolutely priceless,” he said.

Chisholm says he enjoys volunteering with the kids and wants to make sure they have everything they need.