It was a day that Sgt. Det. Chad McVay will never forget. He was not wearing a Santa beard or suit, but on the inside, his Christmas spirit was alive and well in his heart. And in the hearts of the other Santas, helping him.
For 23 needy Loudon County families, Christmas 2025 came early – 20 days early – on Friday, Dec. 5 — when the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office’s (LCSO) Criminal Investigations Division (CID) holiday crew delivered meals so these people could enjoy several holiday meals. And joining the CID Santa team was LCSO’s chief Santa – Sheriff Jimmy Davis. The other CIS Santas were Cpl. Trey Davis, Chief Deputy Chris Hutchens, Sgt. Det. Marty Branam, Lt. Charlie Cosner, Sgt. Det. Bryan Talbott and Deputy Chief Kevin Kirkland.
It was a 10-month project that McVay, this week’s Our Town Hero, and the team enjoyed pulling together, all the while working on their detective caseloads.
Sgt. Det. Chad McVay
It’s also part and parcel of the reason McVay moved his family some 2,300 miles across country four years ago from Riverside County in southern California to East Tennessee. McVay was the administrator for the holiday effort – finding the families, reaching local businesses for food donations, and getting it all done. It was a true labor of love!
McVay, trustees from the Loudon County Detention Facility, his fellow CID Santa detectives, and deputies from LCSO came together to sort and package everything into 23 boxes in preparation for the deliveries to family homes. Each box contained butterball turkeys, 7-pound spiral hams, potatoes, mac and cheese, gravy, biscuits, rice, green beans, dressing, corn, Jello, and paper plates and napkins, along with Christmas cards and gift cards.
“We had one family with 12 people living in the house, so we doubled up on the food for them and one other large family,” he said.
He said that food donations and gift cards came from Food City, Ingles, Food Lion, and Walmart. Amy Langley, KCSO’s Executive Secretary, was the point person for identifying the community’s most needy families.
McVay is hoping to double the number of families they can help during Christmas 2026.
He and his wife, Sara, who works at the Lenoir City School District, and their four children are loving life today. “We wanted our kids to have healthy childhoods and not live in the crap we had in California,” McVay said. “The pace of life is slower here, and we’re loving it. We know our neighbors, everyone knows everyone, and the kids are making lifelong friends here. We didn’t know our neighbors in California.”
When we talked this past Wednesday, he said two neighbors had just walked over and brought them holiday cookies before they all left for work and school. “Those kinds of things never happened in California. We moved from a town of 140,00 to a town of 15,000, and we’ve never been happier. We had a friend who had moved to the area a few years ago, so my wife and I flew out here for a couple of days and immediately fell in love with the area. We’re home.”
Before the move to East Tennessee, McVay, 40, spent 15 years with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Dept., working at its Lake Elsinore, CA station for 13 years. When they first arrived here, he spent 11 months working at the Tennessee Department of Corrections, Morgan County state prison, before joining the LCSO in November 2022. The sheriff and others took note of his extensive experience and promoted him to sergeant detective in August 2023.
He says his law enforcement career “just kinda happened.” He was trying to finish college and thinking about a career in sports therapy when he joined the Riverside department in 2006. “And I fell in love with it. I’ve always liked puzzles and getting to a crime scene and trying to determine what all happened, talking to the involved parties, was like solving a puzzle,” he said. “You change people’s lives for the better at times, maybe help someone get clean from drugs, and get a child away from abusive parents. You remember those specific moments.”
McVay sees the same types of crimes here he saw in California – just not as many. His detective cases span an array of crimes, from harassment to homicides, drugs, burglaries, forgery, intimidation (a lesser version of stalking), breaking and entering, robberies, and death investigations.
Gang activity is something he’s familiar with, of course. “We have the thoroughfares here – I-75 and I-40, Highways 321 and 444 – and we have the gangs too,” he said. He rattled off the gangs doing business here – the East Tennessee Disciples, the Vice Lords, Crips, the Bloods, and MS 13. “They live and operate around here in this area.”
Away from work and the puzzles, he loves hanging out with the family. “The kids keep us pretty busy.” He’s also a music man. He owns and plays 12 guitars, a mandolin, two bass guitars, and his ukulele. He enjoys blues, classic rock, and 1960s music. His wife also plays the bass. “But I’m not a singer at all. I do play along with Shane Gaumer (a CID detective), and he has the voice of an angel.” McVay’s father lives in Ten Mile and plays bass in a church band and his mother is a pianist.
In four days, it’ll be Christmas, and McVay thought about the food project for those families and shared what it meant to him: “Speaking with the families on the phone prior to the deliveries, passing out the meals, and seeing the reactions this brought from some of them felt amazing. We all hope to improve people’s lives, even if it’s to a small degree,” he said, and he added, “Christmas is all about giving. The fundamental aspect of law enforcement is public service, and I hope this effort served both of those priorities.”
Mission accomplished!
Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California, and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email Tom at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.
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