Ten-year-old Hadley Polk has been spending her summer break making handmade bead bracelets to raise money for two RCMP officers who were seriously injured in a shooting two months ago. So far, her efforts have generated more than $8,000, with all proceeds going to support the officers. The fundraiser follows a June shooting in Melville that left two RCMP officers with serious injuries. The incident shocked the small community, prompting an outpouring of support that’s included fundraising events, donations and messages of encouragement from across Saskatchewan and beyond. For Hadley, helping the injured officers felt like something she had to do. “I’m a very crafty person, so it kind of just clicked in my brain that I can use my art to make a good thing happen,” she said. The cause is personal for the Polks, with one of the injured officers being a close family friend. “(Hadley) actually spent time in Regina with one of the officers, and she sat with one of them from the day after it happened,” Hadley’s mother, Lacey Polk, told CTV News. “She got right to work when she got home.” It was around the time when the Melville fire department organized a large-scale fundraiser for the injured Mounties, so Hadley reached out to join in. “She raised over $4,000 at the initial fundraiser,” Hadley’s mother recalled. “Then she came home and made about 200-300 more bracelets, and she just kept going.” The fundraiser has surpassed anything Hadley imagined. “I was expecting like a couple hundred (dollars),” Hadley said. “But then, well, now I’m just kind of at $8,000.” When CTV News visited Hadley’s bracelet stand outside her family’s home, customers arrived steadily throughout the interview. At one point, a small lineup formed in front of the table as people waited to purchase bracelets and show their support. Residents learned about ‘Hadley’s Bracelets’ from social media, while others spotted the stand while driving through the neighbourhood. “I see Hadley and her family doing all this, and I’m like ‘I need to donate.’ Jason is a great part of the community and I think it’s really important to me that we’re raising this money for him and Dave,” local resident Deklan Godfrey said after he purchased a second bracelet. He said he couldn’t donate as much as he wanted the day before, so he came back for a replacement bracelet. He’d like to have one for a long time. “So it’s a win-win situation,” he laughed. Although the shooting was difficult for the family to process, Lacey Polk said her daughters were determined to focus on helping. “They knew right away they wanted to be there for them,” she said. Hadley told CTV News that by now she’s mastered the art of bead bracelets, adding it doesn’t take more than five minutes to create one. She said she’ll carry on making them while listening to her favourite tunes for the foreseeable future. “I think one of (the officers) is very proud of me and even wears some of my bracelets around,” Hadley said. “He doesn’t take it off now.” The fundraiser proves that even small hands can make a big difference.
