Eight children earned the opportunity to spend the afternoon shopping at Target buying Christmas presents for their families.And it's all thanks to the Portland Police Department.It's the seventh year Portland police have held an essay contest awarding the winners a shopping spree to pick out presents for their families"We got my dad a movie and a koozy that's a football because he loves football," said Seamus Devon, an essay winner."So for the kids to have kind of their own money that they're able to get something that they want for each of their family members is nice," said Coreena Behnke with Portland police.The funding comes from the police officers themselves, donated by two police unions.And while this particular day is all about the shopping, there's real hope is for these kids and cops to create a bond."It's awesome. We get to build a relationship with kids that we might not necessarily get to meet on a regular basis and they get to see we're just normal run of the mill people," Behnke said.If success is measured in smiles, it would appear they're off to a good start."Thank you for helping the city for situations and thank you for doing this for us," Devon said.The officers and children made a day of it.First the kids were picked up from school in a squad car, then after they were finished shopping, they all went back to the police station to wrap their presents and eat pizza.