“You can’t leave here and not say you had a good time,” said Emily Douglas, the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Blaine Police Department.
The 16th annual Heroes and Helpers program took place as North Metro grade school students went on a holiday shopping spree.
“We have 70 kids this year – which is our biggest group ever,” said Blaine Police Detective Orin Christensen.
Each kid pairs up with a local hero and gets to spend $250 on holiday gifts. Christensen is one of the organizers of this event.
“Every year I say I’m going to hand this program off to somebody else to facilitate but it’s a really hard program to get rid of,” Christensen said. “Everybody’s got a smile on their face when you look around. They’re having fun and the kids are laughing and having a good time too. We take photos. We’re goofy with the kids. It’s a good 4-5 hours that we get to spend with them that we normally wouldn’t. We’re all very thankful for that opportunity.”
Heroes and Helpers began in 2010 and continues to be a way for fire, police and first responders to give back to selected youngsters. The event continues to grow and in 2025 funding came from Target, the Blaine Police Federation, the Blaine Festival, Blaine Hockey, Centennial Hockey and the private sector too.
There were agencies from all over the North Metro participating in this ultimate “toy story.”
“I think we have eight people from SBM Fire, 10 from Allina, a couple from Centennial Lakes, one from Spring Lake Park PD,” Christensen said. “The rest are from Blaine and Lino Lakes PD.”
Gift-grabbing fun
The youngsters clearly had a good time as they went through the aisles looking for that perfect present.
“We have these walkie talkies for my little sister and my brother,” said Jaday, describing one of the gifts she got.
“I got my sister a sleeping stitch Christmas stuffing because she’s wanted it for more than two years,” said Cayden.
“I got my mom a big fluffy blanket,” said Max.
Colin Brown from Allina teamed up with Jaday and both clearly were enjoying the gift-grabbing fun.
“First of all it’s very fulfilling,” Brown said. “This is the season of giving. Giving is receiving. Being able to kind of help Jayday interact with her siblings in such a positive way and wonderful way and bring that kind of joy to their families is pretty neat.”
Douglas is passionate about Heroes and Helpers and likes how it brings everyone together for a good cause.
“It’s really fun, ” Douglas said. “It’s hard to not smile when you’re here.”
This truly was a win-win event. Seeing those gifts being scanned in the checkout line made everyone happy.
“This is my favorite event of the year,” Douglas said. “Mostly just because all the kids and all the cops and our first responders are all smiles most of the time. Even the people that are just randomly shopping here have a great time watching everybody shopping.”
Some extra money was also budgeted for any of the youngsters who wanted to get clothes, cold weather gear or food.
