Five Otwell Middle School students recently won an outing to shop for Toys for Tots in a program organized by their school resource officer, Forsyth County Sheriff’s deputy Matthew Kirk.

Kirk sold slushies at lunch as a fundraiser and students who bought the drinks got a raffle ticket for the trip.

“Each student was given $125 each to buy as many toys as they possibly could,” Kirk said. “The experience was great and the kids loved the fact that they got to leave school for a couple hours to go shopping and ride in a police car.”

Toys for Tots was the second beneficiary this year of Kirk’s program at Otwell. The students previously raised $675 for the Wounded Warrior Project.

Kirk said he initially took over the lunchtime job of selling slushies to “break down the barriers and interact with the students.”