The annual Shop-With-a-Cop was a double-success in December, with enough gift cards to cover two shopping trips for area children.
Twice as many gift cards made possible two shopping trips for more children than usual – trips on Dec. 16 and Dec. 22.
The program, which allows children to shop for gifts for their families, is made possible by grants from Walmart and Bernick’s Pepsi. Area police officers volunteer to accompany the children on the shopping trips in the Walmart store. Representing the Sartell Police Department were Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes and officers Jill Lundquist and Adam Vande Vrede.
The children chosen for Shop-With-a-Cop are from the school districts of Sartell, St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids.
Dalman was born and raised in South St. Cloud, graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School, then graduated from St. Cloud State University with a degree in English (emphasis on American and British literature) and mass communications (emphasis on print journalism). He studied in London, England for a year (1980-81) where he concentrated on British literature, political science, the history of Great Britain and wrote a book-length study of the British writer V.S. Naipaul. Dalman has been a reporter and weekly columnist for more than 30 years and worked for 16 of those years for the Alexandria Echo Press.