By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Three-year-old Billy Cody greets Santa with glee at a
Halawa housing complex last night. "It makes me feel so
good when I can see a child smile," said plice officer
Leo Kovalik, who as Santa, has passed out gifts to
children for the last five years.

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Officer changes uniforms,
and the hearts of children

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

Officer Leo Kovalik, the Santa cop, arrived at a Halawa housing complex in a police patrol wagon loaded with goodies for kids.

Santa's visit last night was supposed to be a surprise, but hundreds of people were waiting for him about 7 p.m.

"This is just wonderful," said Bernadette Chung, president of the Puuwaimomi Tenants Association. "We learned about it (yesterday) afternoon."

Kovalik hustles gifts during the year and wraps them up to give to children on his patrol beat. He usually shows up unannounced and hands out as many gifts as he has.

"No way I expected this," Kovalik said. "It's the biggest ever and it does my heart good."

Many of the residents didn't realize that Kovalik is a police officer.

"Bless him," said Lokelani Kahai after her 2-year-old son Christian received a gift from Santa. "This is a fine thing.

"No more this kind of thing before around here," Kahai added. "Just look how happy all the kids are."

This is what Christmas is about for Kovalik.

"When children have smiles on their faces, they've also got smiles in their hearts," Kovalik said. "They feel good about themselves, their families and life."

Kovalik, 44, joined the Honolulu Police Department seven years ago after 21 years in the Marine Corps. The Groton, Conn., native is single, and his family lives on the mainland.

"Christmas is a lonely time for me," Kovalik said. "Doing this really helps me through this time of year.

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Three-year-old Hundreds of people gathered to welcome "Santa Cop"
in Halawa last night. "This is just wonderful," Bernadette Chung,
president of the Puuwaimomi Tenants Association
said of the visit.

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"It makes me feel so good when I see a child smile that I want to do this all the time," he said.

Kovalik has been passing out Christmas gifts to children for five years, but this is the first time he dressed for the occasion.

"I was at Pearlridge Center on a case one day when I noticed the gleam on the kid's faces when they saw Santa," Kovalik said. "So I decided to buy a Santa outfit this year."

Kovalik wraps stuffed animals and toys donated by Police Department employees and hands them out to children 2 to 7 years old.

"If I don't have a lot, I'll buy some," Kovalik said. "Kids especially love stuffed animals and musical toys. Last year I bought a toy guitar because I wanted something musical."

Kovalik wrapped over 200 gifts this year.

"I like to give them out in the area where I work so kids can see that a policeman is someone you can go up to and talk with," Kovalik said. "Sometimes on our job we don't get a whole lot of time to get personable with people.

"This is also a way to give something back to the community," he added. "I want to reach out to the kids and their families so they see another side to police."

Kovalik was assigned to the Pearl City patrol district four weeks ago. Last year, he delivered gifts to Kalihi youngsters.

"I really enjoyed Kalihi because it is such a vast cultural melting pot," Kovalik said. "The feedback I got from people there was very positive."