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Kids in JP and West Roxbury who dig out hydrants can get free ice cream

City Councilor Matt O'Malley says he's giving out $5 JP Licks gift certificates to kids in his district who shovel out hydrants. E-mail him before and after pictures (or tweet the photos to him or post to his Facebook page). Sorry, no parents - just kids.

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Comments

sadly, you can't get the average kid to do the task for a $20 gift certificate. Its not their fault though, when you aren't made to take out the trash, clean, rake ie do chores your salary demands are usually unrealistic/astronomical.

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Seriously. This is a tedious rant that goes back to when you put bread bags on your feet to walk five miles uphill in the snow twice as high as it is now. Both ways!

Give it a rest. I had no problem getting the kids in my neighborhood to dig out the hydrants after the first storm. FOR FREE! All I had to tell them was that it was a really important job and would help firefighters. They were digging out their third hydrant around the corner when the retired fire chief came out to join them, and made sure they made their way home.

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I live next door to a retired fireman, and all it takes is for either him or his wife to say, "the house you save may be your own, (or something to that effect)" to get the Junior Fire Patrol in gear for the season.

That the councilor to the south and west of us is sweetening the deal is really, really nice.

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I agree. Kids, even trouble makers, want to be important. Easy way to get them helping. In their world fire fighters and cops are very important , for good or bad reasons, and if clearing out the hydranrs make them part of that...

I'm sick of people being down on kids these days. If there is something wrong with the youth in America it is our fault. We raised them. We gave them the examples. We tell them the world is not safe. Which means we can do the opposite.

So no neigherhood kids offer to shovel someone's house, why would they? If that adult never engaged the kid before they are just some old person who lives on the street. To a teen anyone over 25 is old. Engage the kids year round, just say hi. In the winter pull out 20s, kids love money. Include the local hydrant in your payment. When I was a kid I NEVER went door to door but I was always on snow duty. Normally my parents would get a call, they would tell me who it was and what they needed and I would pay a visit. Then my normal routine would be hit my parents house, visit the houses of my clients then hit my parents cars. I had enough clientelle on the street that I began proactively cleaning out storm drains for water because I did not want my territory to flood. The adults reached out to me because they were adults and acted like it.

Back to the councillor for a minute. Good for him! even if only ten kids do it that's ten cleared hydrants!

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District 6 even includes a bit of Rox (Back of the Hill).

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Love this idea! Kids naturally love to help and this is a great way to reward them and instill a sense of community in our neighborhoods.

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...get a pint at Doyles

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...before I realized that was a joke ;P

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I only found this today, in case you don't know where there even are hydrants to dig out (I didn't know where my closest was!)

The interface is a little wonky. It only loads a few hydrants at the center of the map, so zoom into your area to see the hydrants nearby.

Adopt A Hydrant

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O'Malley gets it. Kudos to the councilor for this.

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...brilliant Idea and kudos to JP Licks for providing the gift certificates (i assume they were donated) for this really good idea.

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