Among the places artist and philanthropist Ron Davis sells his popular blue poppy badges are the Australian War Memorial, the Shrine of Remembrance and many RSLs, with some proceeds donated to support organisations.

Mr Davis crafts the badges to raise awareness of post traumatic stress disorder and depression among servicemen and women, first responders and everyone who suffers from "invisible wounds on the battlefield within" through his Battlefield Blue initiative.

This week he made a $500 donation to the Cops N Kids program from badges sold at stores in this region- including Pipers by the Lake and Harvey Norman in Ballarat and Really Good Gifts in Geelong.

He decided to donate to the program after reading about how Cops N Kids puts a smile on childrens' faces at its two camps every year.

"It's such a shame - no young kids should have to go through anything like that. Life's short enough without going through trauma and cancer," Mr Davis said.

"It touched my heart, so whatever I can do to help put a smile on kids' faces I will."

Cops N Kids hosts two camps each year - the February camp in Queenscliffe at the end of February, which will see about 25 kids from Ballarat and surrounds who have endured trauma or who have ill family members enjoy a weekend by the beach filled with thrilling experiences from helicopter and boat rides to a day at Adventure Park.

In November, about 60 children and their families travel from all over the state for four days of fun - from rides in police cars to trips on the paddle steamer on Lake Wendouree.

President of Cops N Kids, Sergeant Dave Collins, said the donation was "very much appreciated".

"We've put a lot of time into keeping the camp running and it's all based on the generosity of the community because we're not funded," Sergeant Collins said.

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"In these very hard times it makes it more difficult when businesses are struggling," he said, adding that it was great to have someone so passionate to go to such effort to donate to the program.

Last year Mr Davis collected handfuls of the discarded bullets from Ballarat Police's firearm training ground.

He has made and sold a number of larger framed poppies out of these and plans to make another for Cops N Kids to raffle off and raise some more money through.

He said he would continue to donate to the Cops N Kids program in future and is continuing to look for more stores to sell his badges in Ballarat and surrounds.

"As long as shops are happy to sell them, we'll continue to donate to Cops and Kids," Mr Davis said.

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