By Donald Wittkowski
Richard Hellander, a summer police officer in Sea Isle City, was doing his job Tuesday night.
No, he wasn’t racing to the scene of an accident or chasing after some bad guys who had just committed a crime.
Hellander was playing football with 11-year-old Louis DelFra. The two were tossing around a football at Excursion Park in a game called “Quarterback Toss.”
While this may have seemed like all fun and games, Hellander actually was building a friendship with Louis as part of the police department’s efforts to strengthen its ties with the community during Sea Isle’s annual National Night Out celebration.
It appears it was working.
“I love seeing him. He is nice,” Louis would later say of Hellander.
Megan DelFra, who brought her son, Louis, and his sisters, Kiley, 9, and Amy, 6, to National Night Out, said the event helps to teach her children about the important roles that police officers and other first responders play in the community.
“It’s a good family night for us. Every police officer here is so nice. We get to see everyone we know,” said DelFra, a summer vacationer in Sea Isle who lives in West Chester, Pa.
For his part, Hellander said he hoped the time he spent playing football with Louis, and every other child he met Tuesday, would help solidify relations between the police department and the community.
“Something so small like playing a game of football with them can be a memory that will last a lifetime for them,” Hellander said of the children. “This is what it’s all about.”
Nationwide, relations between law enforcement and the public have been strained by a series of police shootings of African-Americans and anti-police protests.
In Sea Isle, relations between the police department and the local community remain strong, Police Chief Tom D’Intino said. He noted that National Night Out seems to get bigger each year it is held in Sea Isle, suggesting that the bonds between the police and the public are getting tighter.
“It’s awesome for us,” D’Intino said. “We appreciate that so many people come out and support us. I think our police department and the community get along great.”
Ultimately, D’Intino said, National Night Out teaches the community, particularly children, that the police “are their friends.”
Sea Isle’s version of National Night Out is a family-friendly extravaganza of free food, amusement rides, live music, dunk tanks and police dogs.
Police officers, firefighters and other first responders who gathered in Excursion Park mingled with families, posed for pictures and showed off their emergency equipment. Children were able to get a peek inside a fire engine and other emergency vehicles.
Marveling at one of the fire trucks were 4-year-old Jack Leighton and his 3-year-old sister, Lizzie. Firefighters gave Jack and Lizzie red, kiddie fire helmets stamped with the words “fire chief.”
Their mother, Meghan Leighton, a summer vacationer from Media, Pa., also brought along their 5-month-old sister, Maggie. Leighton said National Night Out is another example of the family-oriented entertainment sponsored by Sea Isle throughout the vacation season.
“We love all of the things Sea Isle does for the families in Excursion Park and during National Night Out,” Leighton said.
