Seventh-grade kid takes over as Sea Isle City's "honorary mayor"

Aiden Beck’s “platform” as Sea Isle City’s honorary mayor was to promise free ice cream, free Yum-Yum treats and free arcade games for everyone in town.

With promises like that, no doubt the 13-year-old kid will win election by a landslide if he ever does decide to run for mayor.

You’ve got to admire the moxie of a seventh-grader who confidently sits at the mayor’s desk at City Hall and mingles with members of City Council like he’s ready to conduct official business.

“It was kind of cool seeing what they do and talking about Sea Isle City,” Aiden said of city officials.

Mayor Leonard Desiderio presented Aiden with a proclamation declaring him as “honorary mayor for the day” during a lighthearted ceremony at a City Council meeting on Tuesday.

Aiden shook hands with Police Chief Anthony Garreffi and posed for photos with members of Council while receiving their congratulations for his special honor.

But he politely declined to respond when he was asked a question by a reporter about all of the hoopla surrounding the ceremony.

“He’s a great politician. The reporter asks him a question and he’s got no answer,” Desiderio joked as the audience burst into laughter.

    Aiden Beck shakes hands with Kevin O'Dare after O'Dare presents Mayor Leonard Desiderio with a model of a Sea Isle City lifeguard boat made by O'Dare.
  

Aiden’s parents, Jen and Steve Beck, and his 8-year-old brother, Keegan, sat in the audience while proudly watching Aiden lead City Council in the Pledge of Allegiance before he received a framed copy of the mayor’s proclamation.

“I think he was a little nervous at first,” Steve Beck said of his son amid all of the excitement of the day.

Steve Beck noted that Aiden’s unofficial platform as mayor was for everyone in Sea Isle to receive free ice cream, Yum-Yum treats and arcade games.

“I wanted to have a proclamation for free beer at Kix, but I don’t think we’re going to move that fast,” Beck joked while mentioning Mayor Desiderio’s popular Sea Isle bar.

The Beck family lives in Mantua, Gloucester County, and enjoys vacationing in Sea Isle in the summer.

Aiden is starting the seventh grade at Clearview Regional Middle School in Mullica Hill, Gloucester County. He said he was looking forward to telling his classmates about his tenure as Sea Isle’s honorary mayor.

    Brothers Keegan and Aiden Beck sit at Mayor Leonard Desiderio's desk at City Hall.
  

The ceremony was made extra special because it coincided with the 13th anniversary of Aiden’s discharge from the hospital in 2011 after he was born two months premature, Steve Beck said.

“We had an earthquake when he was in the hospital and Hurricane Irene hit New Jersey the night he came home,” Beck noted of the wild circumstances surrounding Aiden’s birth.

Fortunately, Aiden’s service as honorary mayor had no such melodrama. To give Aiden a hand, his little brother, Keegan, sat next to him at the mayor’s desk in the role of honorary deputy mayor.

After presenting Aiden with the proclamation, Desiderio asked him if he would like to make a speech.

Aiden, though, simply shrugged his shoulders and smiled without uttering a word, prompting even more lighthearted laughter from the audience and city officials.

    Mayor Leonard Desiderio and Aiden Beck, holding proclamation, are joined by Sea Isle City officials while celebrating Aiden's selection as honorary mayor for the day.