ST. CLOUD — An 8-year-old girl is sharing the power of a good, home-baked cookie with emergency responders in Minnesota.

Sophina Lindquist distributes chocolate-chip cookies several times a month to police departments, fire stations and ambulance companies in and around St. Cloud.

The regular trips with her mother and older sister started after a police officer was shot in 20014. Sophina, who has Down syndrome, now visits almost 20 departments, changing uniforms to match the agencies she visits, each adorned with patches given to her by police, firefighters and EMS crews.

Sophina, who leaves most of the cooking to one of her sisters, keeps a list of her first-responder friends and, with her mother’s help, prays for them at bedtime.

She also says a prayer when she hears a siren.

“She’s our little angel,” Sauk Rapids firefighter Kevin Roesner said. “She can call most of us by name.”

Sauk Rapids firefighters helped her spray a hose and hoisted her into a fire truck to take a peek. Officers at the St. Cloud Police Department even pooled their money to buy her a kid-sized, motorized squad car.

Sauk Rapids firefighter Greg Bomstad notes that first responders need an occasional break from the unpleasant parts of their work, saying: “It won’t even out the bad stuff, but it helps.”

St. Cloud officer Rachel Johnson adds: “In such a chaotic world, to just have someone so kind, it’s just very sweet and uplifting.”