By Greg Higgins

Santa’s elves are coming to downtown N.B.

Nov 17, 2016 | 1:00 PM

Santa’s elves won’t just be making toys for good girls and boys this year, but they will be coming to North Battleford to help bring the Christmas spirit to businesses and shoppers.

Downtown North Battleford has partnered with John Paul II Collegiate for their first Christmas Elves program. Starting on Tuesday, Nov. 22 Grade 8 students will dress up like elves and hit the downtown streets every Tuesday and Thursday mornings. They will help businesses decorate their store fronts and help shoppers carry bags and cross streets.

Lisa Kissick, executive director of Downtown North Battleford, said the city’s Bussiness Imporovement District Board of Directors wanted a way to interact with the youth.

“They will be very recognizable in their elf attire,” Kissick said. “They are there to meet and greet people and make things a little bit more cheery. The youth are the future of our community and we just thought this would be a great way to get them out and involved downtown.”

Along with helping shoppers and businesses, the elves will also be singing Christmas carols and handing out candy canes. Kissick added the students at JP II are always looking to do community service and for their time the city will be donating money towards the mission team’s trip to Ecuador in February.

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According to Kissick, 20 to 25 students will be downtown on each of the mornings. She added teachers will be supervising to ensure student safety.

Kissick is trying to get the word out now to residents and local businesses so they can take advantage of the program.

“If downtown businesses do want them to specifically come to their doors they can let me know ahead of time,” Kissick said. “I have been telling businesses to just find them [the elves] on the street and flag them down and grab a couple of them to help for an hour.”

Kissick also encourages anyone who sees an elf to take a selfie, or what she calls an “elfie,” with them and post it to social media with the hashtag #downtownNB.

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins.