Police officer bear-ing gifts, toys brightens day for heartbroken girl
One Calgary police officer’s arresting case of generosity has brightened the day of a local girl.
Six-year-old Ashlynn Walia’s tale of woe began earlier this month during BMO Kids’ Day at the Calgary Stampede, with the heartbreaking loss of a beloved stuffed bear recently presented to her by a Calgary police officer.
“By the time we went to go on some rides, she gave us the bear to put in our bags — we were carrying a lot of stuff,” said Ashlynn’s father, Amrit.
“But it must have slipped out of the bag, and we lost it.”
Saddened at the loss of her new friend, teary-eyed Ashlynn and her family frantically retraced their steps in what would ultimately be a fruitless hour-long search for the bear.
Leading his now-inconsolable daughter to the Stampede police station, Walia learned the bears were very limited in number, and by then had all been handed out.
That’s when the family encountered Sgt. Paul Dunn, walking his regular Stampede patrol.
Listening to the family share their predicament, Dunn radioed fellow officers to see if anybody had a bear to spare — but, again, no luck.
“We checked initially to see if one had been handed in or if we had some more bears but, unfortunately, we didn’t,” Dunn said.
Dunn told the family he’d keep an eye out for the bear and took down Walia’s contact info, but the family left the park with little hope.
That changed a week later when Walia answered a knock at his door to find a smiling Dunn on his front step, an enormous stuffed Calgary police bear and CPS goody bag in his arms.
“I got together a new bear that needed a good home and some gifts and children’s toys that we had and delivered them to the house,” Dunn said.
With both Ashlynn and 10-yearold big sister Jasmine away at day camp, Dunn arranged for the girls to meet him at the YouthLink Calgary Police Interpretive Centre earlier this week at police headquarters to pick up their gifts.
Describing the reaction to his good deed as “humbling,” Dunn said he didn’t think twice about finding a replacement for Ashlynn’s lost bear.
“It was the right thing to do, to fix things for Ashlynn and give her a positive experience,” he said.
Ashlynn was thrilled with the gift — and her father reports she and the bear have been inseparable.
“We’re so grateful to him,” Walia said.
“It’s not the teddy by itself, it’s what that gentleman did for us — that was unbelievable.”