A little girl only wears her bike helmet because her little sister told her to. When she gets into an accident, her doctor says the helmet might have saved her life.
Two boys find a gun in their backyard. Instead of playing with it, they tell an adult who removes it safely.
These are the sorts of real deeds that Akron police hope to reward with the revival of the Do the Right Thing program.
“It’s sort of contagious,” said Akron police Lt. Rick Edwards. “Rewarding positive behavior makes it something everyone wants to do.”
The program is simple: School-age children are nominated by their peers, teachers or superiors and the most remarkable among them get $50 gift cards and recognition in front of their classmates. The gift cards are funded in part by a $1,000 grant from the Millennium Fund for Children, which is operated by the Akron Community Foundation and was launched by the Akron Beacon Journal. Nearly $42,000 in grants were recently awarded to 32 programs in Summit, Portage and Medina counties.
Students who are recognized by the Do the Right Thing program will be recognized by police officers at school. They’ll be awarded the gift card, a medal and a variety of other small gifts.
The program isn’t new to Akron. The police used to hold it every year, but it lost support over the years.
“So our rejuvenation of the program is an effort to get students talking,” Edwards said.
His colleague, Officer Lauri Natko, agreed.
“By the end of the day, the entire building — the teachers, the students — will know someone got recognized,” she said. “And by that point, it will be contagious.”
The police department’s community relations department expects to begin recognizing students in January. They hope the program will be an asset to local schools regardless of whether they’re public, charter, parochial or private.
“We want to recognize any outstanding deed,” Edwards said. “Anything where they demonstrate good character or good citizenship consistently.”
Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGluntABJ and on Facebook @JournoNickGlunt .