YOUNGSTERS are being given the bird after winning a competition organised by their local beat police officer.
Five children at a Sedgefield school have won a prize turkey after entering a Christmas card contest, organised by PC Keith Todd.
More than 80 pupils from Hardwick Junior School were invited to enter by PC Todd, who wanted to raise awareness of the role of the community beat officer.
The children, aged between five and ten, were invited to design cards based on the theme of PC Todd eating his Christmas dinner.
To give the youngsters a helping hand, a life-sized cardboard cut-out of PC Todd was on display at the school for a week.
The winning children, one from each year group, will be rewarded for their efforts by butcher George Bolam tomorrow.
PC Todd said: "Last year's campaign was very successful. When we sent the cards out we found a lot of people were unaware Sedgefield or myself actually existed.
"It worked really well as an awareness-raising exercise."
PC Todd will send copies of the winning cards to a host of people, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, civic leaders and companies
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