Yes, there is a Santa Claus. She wears a stetson

I had meant to put this up yesterday but then things kind of went sideways.

Too often we spend time focusing on the narrow view and miss what's going in the periphery. On December 24th, Constable Christa Ballard, of the Langley RCMP detachment did one of those things in the periphery that deserves mention.

An angel appeared to Bobbie Henderson on Christmas Eve in the form of Langley RCMP Const. Christa Ballard.

Henderson, a single mom raising two children, awoke on the morning of Dec. 24 to an uncomfortable breeze from an open window in her Brookswood home.

She got up to investigate and to her shock found that the Christmas presents she had scrimped so much to buy for 11-year-old Liberty and Jason, 13, had been stolen.

Const. Ballard couldn't let a lowlife thief ruin the kids' Christmas.

So, when she got back to the detachment to write up her report, she decided to pull a Christmas miracle out of her Stetson.

With time ticking down to St. Nick's annual sleigh ride of joy, Ballard turned into the fundraiser from heaven, hitting up her kind-hearted co-workers on the detachment's C Watch to save Henderson's Christmas.

In the wink of an eye, Ballard had conjured up $360 in cash, two boxes of chocolates, a basket of bath products, candles and a $10 gift voucher.

So, off to the mall she sprang with a clatter.

Using her own meal break for a whirlwind Christmas-shopping spree, Ballard bought replacement presents and hurried back to the detachment.

About 30 officers and civilian RCMP members worked like tireless elves to wrap the presents in the few spare moments they had on the busy pre-yuletide shift.

Well done, Const. Ballard. Just simply, very well done. And that goes out to all of C-Watch, Langley RCMP, for restoring somebody's wrecked Christmas.

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