There probably won’t be a safer place to ride your bike Saturday than in Northeast Philadelphia’s 2nd Police District.
To say you’d have a police escort would be to understate things. There will be cops — lots of cops.
You, the police and anybody else along for the 10-mile bike ride that is a warm-up for the district’s annual Community Day also will be accompanied by police vehicles, their lights flashing and sirens blaring.
The ride begins at 9 a.m. at the Target parking lot on Bustleton Avenue across from the Roosevelt Mall and winds through the Northeast’s southern- and westernmost police district until riders return to the Target lot after 11 a.m.
“It’s not a race,” said Larry Genetti, treasurer of the 2nd Police District Advisory Council, which organized the day’s events.
It is, instead, a leisurely pedal through the district. He said people are free to go along for the whole 10 miles or bicycle for any distance they choose.
And, said PDAC chairwoman Lynn Genetti, bikes aren’t required either.
Participants can use “roller skates or walk if they want,” she said during the organization’s meeting on May 10 at the Philadelphia Protestant Home on Tabor Avenue.
When the ride ends back at Target, the PDAC’s seventh annual Community Day begins, said Larry Genetti.
The event gives residents plenty of opportunities to meet people in law enforcement, said Mark Mroz, the district’s community relations officer.
Representatives of the city Police Department’s mounted unit, K-9 unit, Marine unit, SWAT, FBI and the District Attorney’s Office will be on hand, Mroz said.
Police will offer free vehicle identification number etching, he said.
At a previous session, Larry Genetti said there would be lots of information from the City Controller’s Office, Community Life Improvement Program, Northeast Rotary and Jeanes Hospital.
Also, Mroz’s daughter, Rachel, will collect donations of non-perishable pet food to give to area animal shelters. Canned or dry pet foods will be accepted.
A big draw every year has been free child fingerprinting, but the biggest attraction is free document shredding, he said.
Everyone has documents they no longer need, but some contain so much personal information that it’s too risky to throw away. Bring those to Community Day and get them shredded.
Also, the PDAC has purchased 250 flash drives — small computer-memory devices also known as jump drives or key drives — so parents may store fingerprints, photos or other information about their children.
Volunteers are needed to help man the event as well as set up and take down chairs, tables and tents.
Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Lynn Genetti at 215–342–8946, send an e-mail to [email protected] or show up Saturday morning ready to pitch in.
