Grapevine Telecommunicator Kristy Bleau answered an important call, "off the clock" at home, that ended up saving Christmas for a family in her Lake Dallas community.
Bleau runs a community Facebook page for several cities in her area, including Lake Dallas, Corinth, Hickory Creek and Shady Shores. She has been working with Hickory Creek Police to help strengthen community-police relations in her area, and has utilized her Facebook page to donate bottled water to neighborhood police and fire personnel, as well as raise money for someone affected by breast cancer.
On December 23, 2020, at around 9:45 p.m., Officer Dave from Hickory Creek Police sent Bleau a text saying he had just received an email from a Lake Dallas father. The man was struggling financially and had no means to buy gifts for his children, ages 1, 7 and 9. Because of the late time, and knowing most gift programs had already distributed everything for the year, Officer Dave asked Bleau if she had any creative ideas to help them out last minute. Bleau asked her Facebook community for support, and within minutes, she was receiving monetary donations online. Her hope was to purchase a small gift for each child, but the response was so great, she was able to purchase several items for each child.
Just thirty minutes after Officer Dave's initial text for help, Kristy Bleau was meeting Dave at Walmart to shop with Officer Gingerbread (a Hickory Creek Police mascot.) She took all of the purchases home and stayed up until 1:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve wrapping the gifts. When she was done, she gave Officer Dave seven wrapped gifts for each of the older children, five gifts for the youngest, and a gift each for the mother and father. Bleau had to report for work the following day, so Officer Dave enlisted officers from Corinth Police and Lake Dallas Police to escort him for the delivery of the gifts.
Officer Dave saw firsthand how the family had no gifts under the tree, and how appreciative they were for the support. Officer Dave says, "Kristy is a great asset to our community, and community members know it! As the PIO/community engagement officer, I can always count on her and her willingness to go the extra mile to do good."
Kristy Bleau gave her heart and her time to a family she has never met, and because of her actions, a family had a joyous Christmas and the best imaginable experience with their local police community.