By ANGYE MORRISON

amorrison@discoveringbulloch.com

Garrett Clark, who owns Rolling Monkey Ice Cream with his wife Meagan, saw an opportunity in early 2020 to bridge the gap between law enforcement officers and local young people. He wanted to find a way to provide a connection point for open dialogue, and to build trust and relationship between officers and youth.

Garrett Clark designed a campaign, which he has dubbed “Caught Doing Good.” The premise is pretty sweet — literally. When Statesboro Police Department officers see a young person doing a good deed, that young person will receive a “citation,” which entitles him or her to free ice cream at the Rolling Monkey. 

“We just saw an opportunity to do a win-win,” he said of the campaign. “I’m hoping that this will be a way for this leader of the community to be more of an encourager.”

“Our hope is that as an officer is driving by,” Meagan adds, “or is pulling into the parking lot at Walmart or something like that, if they see a kid helping an elderly person push a cart to their car, or picking up trash on the side of the road, or maybe it’s on the basketball court, and the big kids are teaching the little kids how to play basketball, these are opportunities for the officers to recognize these good behaviors in our youth. So they can then receive free ice cream and then see the officer in a light of like, wow, maybe I don’t need to be afraid every time an officer comes around.”

While the initial focus will be on local kids, as that was Garrett’s original vision, they don’t want to limit the campaign to just that. He says that as they partner with other groups who may want to become sponsors, they may focus on other groups of people. 

The current campaign is being sponsored by the Statesboro Police Officers Foundation, which provided 50 “citations.” The Clarks were hoping to launch the campaign in 2020, but the pandemic brought it to a halt. 

“We spoke with a few officers to confirm viability and it appeared to be a hit, but ultimately with everything going on in 2020, we weren’t able to allocate the time to see the program through,” Meagan said. 

But the program is officially underway now, and officers with the Statesboro Police Department are on the lookout for local youth who are out there “doing good.”

“We can’t wait to hear all about the good deeds the kids in our community are given a citation for,” said Meagan. 

For more information or to offer sponsorship, email the Clarks at info@therollingmonkey.com.