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WANAQUE - Free ice cream for law-abiding children
(by Teresa Edmond - Staff Writer - September 03, 2008)
WANAQUE - The Police Department expects kids to use their heads when it comes to protecting their heads from harm.
For the last five years, the police have tried instilling the importance of helmet usage among kids. But this year the police have decided to use something to give that extra motivation: ice cream.
Since Aug. 22 and until November, the Police Department has joined forces with Rita’s Ice to give out coupons for ice cream to kids spotted wearing helmets while bicycle riding.
Although the borough has had the helmet program for nearly five years, this is the first year that coupons were handed out as a way to pat kids on their backs for wearing helmets. In the past, police gave out helmets as incentives.
Around this area, the number of kids wearing their helmets has gone up and down, according to Capt. Kenneth Fackina. The captain said that it’s the parents’ responsibility to give their children that push to wear helmets.
“The kids will listen to the parents more than us, so if parents stay on top and stress the importance of helmets…the constant from parents is what'll help out,” he said.
After Officer Keith Spillane and Sharon Cisco, manager of Rita’s Ice at 519 Ringwood Ave., came up with the idea for the coupon incentive, Cisco gave the Police Department 100 coupons to hand out.
Although she’s not certain how many coupons have gone out so far, Cisco said that Spillane “gives them out every other day.”
As part of the program, the Police Department addresses helmet safety whenever it can, including during Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and Safety Town programs. DARE equips kids with the knowledge to stay away from drugs and violence. Safety Town is a summertime program for children on transportation safety.
“Any opportunity we get, we try to hit it from both sides in education, and also give incentive to wear it also,” Capt. Fackina said.
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