13-year-old Joshua Stockton received the best Christmas gift ever on Christmas morning.

A ride along in a police cruiser. Ever since he was little, Stockton, who has Down Syndrome, has been infatuated with police cars and officers; the sound of a siren gets him bouncing with excitement.

This year, his older brother Christopher organized a surprise ride-along with an Airdrie officer to make his wish come true. In the midst of unwrapping Christmas presents, Christopher invited the family outside.

"We all walked outside and this police car drove up," says Stockton's mother Margaret. "Then this police officer got out and stood in the driveway and Joshua just ran for him, he was just so excited to see him. He asked Joshua 'How about a ride?'"

According to Stockton's mother, the officer let him sit in the passenger seat and showed him all the gadgets, buttons and sirens inside the cruiser and took him for a 20 minute ride around Airdrie. The entire ride, Stockton could not stop grinning from ear to ear.

"It was such a feel-good Christmas thing to do. What it did for Joshua, it made him feel like he's just like everyone else. It was something he could do that no one else has done to sit in the front of a police car and drive around and be happy. This officer was so amazing with him, very patient with him, treated him like any other kid. He showed him respect and explained how everything works in the front of the cruiser," explains Stockton's mother.

Once the ride was over and the family returned inside to continue opening presents, Stockton barely looked at his gifts as he kept watching videos of his adventure inside the cruiser, over and over again.

The Stocktons believe that the police doing this for their son was not only an act of kindness, but also a way to bring assurance to youth about the positive role that police play in our society.

"We're so happy that we live in Airdrie and we're so happy that the police can be looked at in a positive way and not as the 'bad guys'."

The Stocktons are grateful for being a part of a community that facilitates acts of kindness such as this one.

"Community is very important as we get bigger in Airdrie. We've been here since 1981 and we've seen a lot of changes in Airdrie and to think that even in spite of us growing, something that precious and lovely can happen in a town that's growing rapidly, that we still have a piece of that small town," says Stockton's mother.

It was a Christmas miracle that will undoubtedly stay close to the Stocktons forever.

 

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