GARDEN GROVE : A Sweet Reward for Young Bicycle Riders

Police officers will begin next week handing citation tickets to children riding their bicycles--if they are wearing a helmet. Yes, wearing a helmet!

But instead of a fine, the tickets are redeemable for a cone of yogurt or a box of cookies at any McDonald’s restaurant in Garden Grove.

McDonald’s and the Police Department launched the reward program Wednesday to encourage children--and their parents--to observe traffic laws, including wearing bicycle helmets.

Police Officer Karl Mansfield of the city’s neighborhood traffic unit said that rewards also will be given to children wearing a seat belt or if they are in a car seat when a police officer pulls over the vehicle in which they are riding.

The program is a positive way to enforce traffic laws, Mansfield said.

At Wednesday’s program launching, Police Chief Stanley L. Knee also gave bicycle helmets to five Garden Grove students, compliments of an anonymous $100 donation to the Police Department’s bicycle helmet program.

The helmets were bought at reduced prices from Dave Coombs, owner of four bicycle shops, who has agreed to participate in the program.

In July, the police distributed flyers in local schools detailing a state law, which requires bicycles riders to wear helmets. Starting in January, those not wearing helmets may be fined $25, Mansfield said.

The flyers included coupons that entitle the holder to buy a bicycle helmet for $20, less than half of the retail price, at any of Coombs’ bike shops in Garden Grove, Anaheim and Tustin.

The children who received the helmets Wednesday were Elesha Kuskie, 8, third-grader at Lampson Elementary School; Melissa Byram, 7, first-grader at Faylane Elementary; Emmanuel Urbina, 12, seventh-grader at Doig Intermediate School; Shilo Carter, 6, kindergarten student at Faylane Elementary, and Mychael Moore, 8, third-grader at Evans Elementary School.