A Chicago officer's wife and her son say they want officers to feel appreciated and have been handing out special holiday gifts to local LEOs.

Mary Beth Witulski says the idea came to her and her son, Zachary, a few weeks ago as a reaction to all of the negative press that police were receiving over the Michael Brown and Eric Garner incidents.

"My husband is a Chicago police officer and comes home from work constantly sickened by all that he sees and hears on the streets. So we just thought that if we could give back in some way to show our appreciation, that we'd do it. Even if we could only give a few gift bags out to area officers," Witulski says.

Witulski and her son collected items that area officers use daily during their shifts and started assembling gift packages. At first she says she wanted to distribute the gifts without drawing any attention to herself. Then she realized that she could do more if people knew about it.

She went on social media and promoted the project and word spread. She received product donations, including dog treats for police K-9s, and monetary contributions and was able to distribute the gifts last weekend.

Gifts ready to go.

Some of the items that officers received in the gift packages included foot and hand warmers, gift cards for coffee, breakfast bars, hand sanitizer, gum, mints, Band-Aids, and lip balm.