No. 16 Vol. 5
www.mypaperonline.com
May 2018
Mendham First Aid Squad Captain Reads To Students At Storytime Helpers Outreach Program
R
By Dawn M. Chiossi eading to children holds many delights: It engages the imagination, simulates creativity, and creates an experience the storyteller and listener will always remember. Recently on April 12, former Mendham Police Chief and Current Captain of Mendham’s Borough First Aid Squad, Jim Cillo participated in St. Joseph’s School’s
monthly Community Helpers Storytime outreach program by reading to the kindergarten and first grade students of the school. No stranger to volunteering and helping out others, Cillo is a dedicated member of Mendham’s First Aid Squad for many years, first as an associate, then as a member, and a former police chief for 13 years. People could say that helping out comes
naturally to Cillo. A Mendham native, Cillo jokes that when he started on the police force in 1978, the town was like “Mayberry RFD,” but in talking to him, it is obvious that there is no place that he’d rather be. Altruism and caring are his buzzwords. A born storyteller, Cillo had a great time reading to the kids of St. Joseph’s School. He shares that even at 83 years old, he additionally works at St. Joseph’s School and Church as a facilities manager. In fact, Cillo is so well known and friendly with the staff and the children there, that’s how they asked him to become a part of their Community Helper’s Storytime event. It was an honor he happily accepted. And he was extremely popular. Feedback from the public, school and even the Mendham Borough First Aid Squad themselves, have been extremely enthusi-
astic regarding his reading to the students. Cillo, known as “chief,” to the kids (and to everyone around him) not only read the story “Have Fun, Molly Lou Mellon,” by Patti Lovell to the students, he additionally took the program a step further by engaging the group sharing stories and adventures from his own childhood and experience. He encouraged the students to use their
own imaginations to have fun, and not rely so much on existing technology. With his trademark caring and humor he told them stories about how he and his friends made things such as a wagon and huts in their youth, often from things they found elsewhere around town. He even told them a little bit about the first aid squad. Impressed with how smart the children were, Cillo
can’t say enough about them. “I had a great time, they are such nice kids,” he enthuses. In fact, when asked what his favorite part of volunteer work is, he mentions the people. Whether he is working at the school, reading to the children, or working at the first aid squad, “I enjoy it all.” Afterwards, the children even made Cillo homemade cont. on page 6