By Kellah Lavoie

Police shop for Christmas cheer

Dec 4, 2010 | 11:28 AM

The made their lists, and checked them twice.

On Friday, 27 students from Queen Mary, St. Michael, Riverside and John Diefenbaker Schools were selected to shop with a cop.

The day was put together by the Prince Albert Police Service. Twenty-four police officers took the children to Zellers, each with a $100 gift card to buy presents for their families.

“So they can in fact go buy presents for their families that maybe some of the people in their families might not get Christmas presents,” said Const. Rob Lindsay.

He was shopping with Nakisha Manitoken-Arcand and they had seven people on their list to buy for.

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“She likes everything and we’re doing some selective buying… There are a lot of things she does want, and if she had it her way she would take the whole store, let’s put it what way,” Lindsay joked.

Sierra Forest also has a long list of people to buy for. Including herself, she had the stretch her money to buy six Christmas presents.

She said her favourite present was play dough.

“It’s my little sister’s and I haven’t seen her in a long time,” the eight-year-old said adding her dad passed away.

Const. Shawn Rowden was happy to take part.

“It’s good for the community, it’s good for the little guys and gals who might be scared of stepping up or going up to a police officer and kind of gets rid of those gaps. I think it’s good to build a rapport with the youth,” he said adding it is an excellent program.

Lindsay agreed.

“It lets them realize that us police here, as well, are excited about the holiday season, that we also do have families. We’re doing some Christmas shopping hanging out with them and having them realize we care about them and we think about them at this time of year, during the holiday season.”

It wasn’t the only reason police officers wanted to take part.

“It’s fun, it’s something to do, and who doesn’t want to go shopping, it’s a good opportunity for everyone,” Rowden said.

klavoie@panow.com