Shumway.
Nine-year-old Amari Torres was apprehensive Friday morning when she saw Officer Scott Shumway come through the door of her fourth-grade classroom at Lincoln-Bassett school. Until he pulled out a brightly illustrated copy of Max Brallier’s The Galactic Hotdog, and opened to page one.
“Who wants one?” Shumway asked, showing off two pages packed with text and animations.
Torres’s hand shot up, accompanied by a big smile. Ten small hands, fingers waving enthusiastically, followed suit.
Torres, with her friend Lynnea Payne.
Shumway’s trip to Lincoln-Bassett School came as the second event in a collaboration between the New Haven Police Department and a new literacy initiative that has popped up at the NHPD’s Winchester Avenue substation and includes a Little Free Library outside the building.
Friday’s visit, during which Officer Shumway provided books to three classrooms of fourth=graders, marks new ways that those at the substation — and in the NHPD more broadly — are trying to promote positive interactions between police, kids and community members.
Ideally, said former librarian and Read to Grow collaborating partner Jane Lewis, this event will be just one in the “Kops and Kids” initiative that Sgt. Shafiq Abdusabur and his officers are spearheading in the Newhallville, East Rock and Cedar Hill neighborhoods.
That prospect appealed to Amari Torres, who had found herself nervous and fidgety when Shumway first walked into the room. She walks past the substation almost every day, she said — but that hasn’t made her feel particularly trusting of the police.
“I worried that someone was going to get into trouble” when Shumway came in. she said. But then he yanked out an object that wasn’t a badge or a gun. That book — whose layout rivals Torres’ favorite series Dork Diaries — changed how she felt.
“When he was holding the book, I thought he was going to read to us. Then he started giving them out, and that was even better,” she said, cradling The Galactic Hotdog as she spoke. “I’m going to finish it today,” she added optimistically.
Students Deante Hammie and Robert Lester.
Responses like that are what the program’s all about, Shumway said. Standing before one class of students, he explained that the police were at the substation as helpful members of the community, that the students should find approachable at all times. Even if they just need somewhere to chill after school.
“Our office is always open,” he said. “If you need a quiet place to read, if you need a place to study, you can come. If you want some help with your homework, come in and we’ll help you. Please — we’d love to see you there. Come by, say hi, and grab a book.”