Cops set to help with Christmas shopping

Havre police officers will be taking 15 local elementary school students gift shopping Friday.

For the second year in a row, the Shop with a Cop program will pair students with local officers who will hang out with the children and take them gift shopping. The students, five from each of the three local public elementary schools, have been nominated by teachers and, oftentimes, they are children who will have come from unstable home environments.

The day will begin early, about 9 a.m., at City Hall, where the kids will spend time and have breakfast with the officers.

"I think their most favorite thing are the handcuffs," event coordinator Laura Eller said in an email about that part of the day.

Eller has helped put Shop with a Cop together both years. She is also the wife of a Havre officer, Sgt. Jesse Eller, who is the president of the Havre Police Protective Association, which is the main catalyst of Shop with a Cop.

After breakfast, around 10 a.m., everyone will get on a North Central Montana Transit bus and ride to Walmart, where they will be met by greeters with candy canes. The kids, who will have a gift list which will have been provided by their guardians, will then walk the retail store shopping for gifts - personal and for others.

Then it's off to lunch.

"By this time the kids are tired! But it's time for Pizza! Last year Pizza Hut gave us the buffet!" Eller said in the email.

After lunch at Pizza Hut, it's back to City Hall, where the kids will spend time talking with officers and the volunteers making the day possible, including some of their wives.  

"We talk to the kids, ask them how school is, and about their siblings," Eller said. "I think the best part is watching the officers who, some are family men and some just starting out, interact with kids."

During this time, the kids will wrap their gifts.

The event, Eller said, is "a great way to give back and have these kids see that police are the good guy."

Several groups and individuals contribute to make the event possible.

HPPA donates several thousand dollars to the event, Havre Police Chief and HPPA member Gabe Matosich said. The transit company donates the bus, Pizza Hut provides lunch, and other contributors include Bear Paw Credit Union and Walmart.

Then there are the officers.

"I'm just really proud of our officers because this is their program," Eller said. "This is their program on their own time and sometimes their own money."