Just in time for the holidays, police deliver presents and cheer for Twin Cities families in need

Panya Yang met the Paw family when all hope seemed lost.

As a St. Paul police officer, Yang has patrolled the East Side for three years. He met the Paw family while responding to reports of a person in crisis and learned their needs ran deep: The family patriarch had died in a car accident 10 years before, and a son had died in an accident shortly after graduating college. Narcotics had compounded another son’s mental health struggles, leaving the mother to care for him and her daughter.

“To her, it feels like she doesn’t have anybody to turn to,” Yang said. “It feels like she needs something to look for, to feel like somebody cares.”

That’s why Yang and law enforcement officers from across the state volunteered Saturday to deliver presents to the Paw family and others in need, as part of the Minnesota Asian Peace Officers’ Association’s Glow of Hope event.

Glow of Hope, which launched in 2008, collects and distributes gifts for struggling families. Officers submit the names of families they encounter in their work for consideration before the organization chooses those whose needs are greatest.

Last year, the association delivered gifts to five families with help from the Karen Organization of Minnesota. This year, the group chose three families, allowing them to focus on the quality rather than quantity of the gifts. Donations raised throughout the year fund the gifts they distribute.

St. Paul police officer Keng Her, the association’s president, said many of the members come from immigrant families themselves, which motivates them to volunteer and help with donating gifts.

“Glow of Hope is to be a shining light for the families during the holidays,” Her said. “Whatever our parents were able to scrounge to give to us, we cherished it. So knowing our community and also the people that we serve, we wanted to do the same thing back to them.”

The Paw family had asked for food and water for support through the winter; officers also gave them a TV. A Brooklyn Center family that had lost both parents in an accident asked for a snow blower, and Kendall’s Ace Hardware on Payne Avenue provided them with an $800 machine.

A Maple Grove family received donated toys from shows like Batman and Paw Patrol, as well as clothes and a pair of wireless headsets. The mother and five children, between the ages of 4 and 18, recently found housing after being homeless last year.

After loading the gifts into squad cars, Yang led dozens of smiling officers into the Paw family’s home. Metro Transit Sgt. Canon Yang entered with red and white robes and a faux beard, ringing a bell and hollering “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!”

The family thanked them, asking a preacher to translate from the Karen language.

Officers hope that more law enforcement and community agencies will pitch in to increase the number of people they help. It brings them closer to the community, they said.

“That smile on their face gives us a smile, said St. Paul police officer Jim Lee. “We’re human beings as well. We care, we truly care about the community. That’s why we’re out here doing our job,”

For Yang, Glow of Hope means more. He was born in a Thai refugee camp and struggled to survive, but the community helped him get by. He feels he can do the same for others struggling like he did.

“This is what I work for. This is what I want to do,” Yang said. “We can show the community that this is for them. ... We are looking to give and we care for them.”