 If I was a busy night at Bemidji's Target Store and not with your usual Christmas shoppers, Josh Peterson introduces us to Holiday Heroes and Helpers. These kids tonight got an opportunity to place Santa Claus for their family. The Bemidji's Target Store played host to Holiday Heroes and Helpers, a program that partners members of Law Enforcement, the Fire Department and EMS personnel with kids to help with their Christmas shopping. Together, they shopped until they dropped. So we decided we would call our program Heroes and Helpers. It's essentially the same concept. Kids are given a monetary fund and able to shop with a hero then. Twenty-one kids partnered with thirty-one different heroes spent their evening at Target tonight to do their Christmas shopping, buying gifts for everyone in their family, including possibly one for themselves. Each kid had a budget of $100 to spend on Christmas gifts. Kids along with their hero shopped for gifts of all kinds. This is the first year for Holiday Heroes and Helpers and it would not have happened without the help of key partnerships. So partnership, partnering with other organizations that support youth is really, really critical and working with Tavatha and Law Enforcement and those other great heroes in our community to bring everybody together. For Bemidji's Target Store, having the opportunity to play host to an event like this is a great experience for all its team members. Seeing the smiles on each kid's face leaves a lasting impression. The highlight of the night is just the first girl when her name was called out and just seeing her raise her hand and that smile on the face, you just can't duplicate that excitement. The joy of Christmas isn't the only holiday magic that happened in this Target Store. It's the start of new trusting relationships between heroes and kids. It's all about the positive relationship. So it's a positive relationship in a non-emergency situation where they can develop those friendships or relationships where something isn't stressful and it's not an emergency. So that is the goal. In Bemidji, I'm Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. And if you'd like to make a contribution to Holiday Heroes and Helpers, we have a link located on our website lptv.org slash news. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.