NORTHAMPTON — Just call her “Detective Goldie.”

That’s the name 7-year-old Dreya Sawka has picked for herself. She has dreams of becoming a police officer, dreams that the Northampton Police Department’s new trading card program has helped cultivate.

On Sunday, the Northampton girl completed her collection and earned the special 50th card which features the entire department.

“We started two weeks ago,” Kristina Schoen, Dreya’s mom, said. “She is over here (at the police station) two times a day.”

Launched in June, the Northampton Police Department’s Police Trading Card program is aimed at strengthening relationships between officers and the community’s youth.

The prize for the first 10 kids who collect all 49 cards is an official department water bottle, while the 50th card comes with a choice between a department challenge coin or a ride to school in a police car.

“She’s just had such great interactions with them,” Schoen said. “This is great. It’s doing nothing but fostering her dream of being a police officer.”

Dreya’s dream started shortly before the Northampton Police Department’s annual police day in May, according to Schoen.

“Police day happened and she got to meet two of the detectives that day and she was just in awe,” Schoen said.

Before the final card

Shortly after 4:30 p.m. last Wednesday, a flash of sandy blond hair flew past the windows of the police station community room. Moments later, Dreya walked through the doors to greet Northampton officers who had gathered to hand out their trading cards.

As on most of her visits to the police station, Dreya was wearing her “favorite police shirt” — a gray Northampton Police Department T-shirt with a Northampton badge sewn on the sleeve.

Officer Scott Gregory was officially the man of the hour, but Animal Control Officer Shayla Howe and her dog Sweet Cherry Pie, as well as fellow officers on the 3 to 11 p.m. shift, came to talk for a bit.

Dreya already had their trading cards. In fact, she was only one card away from completing her collection. She planned to glue all of her cards to a board and then hang it on her wall at home when her set was complete.

The drive to collect them all has led Dreya and her mom to stop in as early as 6:45 a.m. to catch the night-shift officers before they finished their work.

“She is dedicated. She wants that ride,” Schoen said.

Dreya’s immediate goal is to line up that ride to school for her first day of third grade in the fall.

Her goal for the future, though, is to be an undercover cop who works with dogs. She’s even picked out the kind of leash she wants to use — “a blue glittery leash for the dog.”

Schoen said that when Dreya is asked what she wants to do when she grows up, her answer has consistently been that she wants to help people.

Being a police officer sounds fun, according to the youngster.

Schoen said Dreya has nicknamed herself “Goldie-the-cartwheeling-cop.”

Driving fast in a police car, working with dogs and staffing the police station’s front desk to help people when they walk in are all things Dreya said she was interested in doing.

“Being a police officer, I like how they take notes and stuff,” she said. “Basically almost everything is fun.”

Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettnet.com.

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