Photo by Deb Gau Marshall Police Sgt. Ben Rieke helped Rory Strandmark look for gifts during Saturday’s “Holidays With Heroes” event in Marshall. Area youth teamed up with emergency responders like law enforcement, EMTs and firefighters to go Christmas shopping for their families.

MARSHALL — It started out as a chance to spread some holiday cheer to area families in need, and build bridges with local police. While the mission has stayed the same, “Holidays With Heroes” has grown, organizers said.

“We had a lot of people who were asking, ‘How can we get involved with this?'” said Ryan Anthony, one of the event organizers.

On Saturday, a total of 18 area youth set out to find the perfect Christmas gifts for their family members. As they shopped, kids teamed up with emergency responders ranging from firefighters and emergency medical technicians, to local law enforcement and state troopers.

“OK, so where are going?” one officer said, as the teams got their shopping carts and spread out across the Marshall Walmart.

Holidays With Heroes got its start last year, as a “Shop With Cops” event pairing area youth with Marshall Police officers. It’s been exciting to see the level of community support for the event since then, Anthony said.

“We went from eight kids to 18 kids this year,” he said, and more emergency responders volunteered to help shop for and wrap gifts. In addition, organizers were also going shopping to surprise one additional family with gifts, Anthony said.

During Saturday’s shopping session, emergency responders helped the kids keep track of their budgets, and even helped brainstorm gift ideas. Afterward, everyone met at the Marshall Fire Station to wrap presents.

Some Holidays With Heroes participants knew from the start what they wanted to get for their family members, while others took their time to decide. “It was kind of as-you-go,” Alexis Torres said of shopping for her family’s gifts.

“The gifts were easy, because for my dad, I knew exactly what he wanted,” Aiden Esparza said. Wrapping the gifts proved to be trickier, but Esparza and Marshall Police officer Peter Vue managed to get the packages sealed up with plenty of tape.

“It was really fun,” Joel Amaya said of the shopping trip. He was teamed up with Marshall firefighters Travis Brandt and Blake Giles.

“Joel made it easy for us. We just followed him,” Brandt said. At one point, Joel even sacrificed getting something for himself in order to get a gift for a family member, he said. “We’re proud of him.”

Amaya thought his family members were going to love their gifts.

“My brother is going to scream,” he said.