Shop with a Cop, 2019. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Dawson Thompson

Online Shopping

Annual Shop with a Cop program moves online this holiday season

Dec 9, 2020 | 4:00 PM

An annual tradition with the Prince Albert Police Service which allows kids to ‘Shop with a Cop’ for holiday gifts will look quite different this year.

Due to COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, police officers will not be able to meet with kids and take them shopping for gifts.

However, the event will still take place. All shopping will be completed online only.

For over the past 10 years, a total of 25 students from five different schools in the city get paired with a police officer for the day. The group of students and officers are bussed to McDonald’s to have lunch, then to Canadian Tire to shop.

The five schools involved this year are King George Public School, Vincent Massey Public School, Princess Margaret Public School, St. Catherine Community School, and St. John Community School.

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Prince Albert Police Service spokesperson Charlene Tebbutt said it is important to them to keep the program going during a tough year.

“The police service wanted to make sure some local kids could still celebrate Christmas,” Tebbutt said. “It has been a tough year for many families in Prince Albert. Our members really enjoy Shop with a Cop, so we wanted to make sure we could still do this if we could.”

Shop with a Cop, 2019. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

Tebbutt explained students will be doing their shopping with their teachers this year.

“We asked teachers to sit down with each of the children at their school and look at the Canadian Tire website and see what kinds of things they would like to pick out for their families,” Tebbutt said.

She also added each student has a $100 budget. Canadian Tire waves the taxes on the gifts being purchased, so students are able to work with their full amount.

Once all the packages are put together by staff at Canadian Tire the police service will pick up the packages and deliver them to the schools, Tebbutt explained.

“We’re going to have some police officers deliver those items to each child at their schools,” Tebbutt said. “If COVID is a factor, it might mean the police officer will put the box of gifts on the sidewalk outside the school and stands on the street while the child gets it.

“We are going to make sure that these children can still celebrate Christmas and still have something to give their families.”

McDonald’s has donated happy meal coupons to each child since they are not able to go out for lunch at the restaurant. Old Dutch Foods continued their support for the program, donating snacks for the kids, and the High Noon Optimist Club did their part to help keep shop with a cop running by donating $750 to the cause.

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Dawson.thompson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: dawsonthompson8