Clean bill of health: Pupils write winning Rx for parents
By NINA RIZZO
Published in the Asbury Park Press 6/04/01
POINT PLEASANT, NJ - Three Ocean Road School pupils were honored Friday for
essays they wrote, prompting their parents to schedule an annual health
examination.
The contest was open to fourth- and fifth-graders in Point Pleasant and
Brielle's private and parochial elementary schools, but the winners were all
from Ocean Road School.
"Mom, you know how you promise me that you will always be there for me? Well
if you die when I am young, then that will be breaking a promise for something
as silly as a yearly checkup," wrote Danny Marshall, 10, who won first prize.
"Dad, you always say 'children first.' Well I am worried about you because
if you die who will take care of me, Joey, Alex and our pets? Dad, I love you,
don't get sick and die," he continued.
"It was a real tear-jerker," said Gene Marshall, Danny's father, a
self-employed woodworker.
"I'm very busy . . . and I haven't had a chance to go," the elder Marshall,
of Johnson Avenue, said after the awards ceremony. "I feel guilty. I plan to
get a checkup right away."
The Empathy Foundation, a nonprofit group that brings teddy bears to
hospitalized children, promoted the contest after its founder Tom Riles said he
heard parents say they were too busy caring for sick children to take their own
preventive measures.
Riles, of Point Pleasant Beach, also prompted Ocean County legislators to
sponsor legislation that would allow state employees to take up to four paid
hours each year for a health screening.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Andrew R. Ciesla, was introduced in the Senate
Thursday. An accompanying measure, sponsored by Assemblymen James W. Holzapfel
and David W. Wolfe, will be introduced in the Assembly today.
Point Pleasant Beach adopted such a policy for municipal workers in March
after Riles suggested the idea to the council.
Holzapfel said physicians have a better chance of treating a serious illness
if it is diagnosed in its early stages. "The problem with medical services
today is that people don't go (see a doctor) until they have a chronic
problem," he said.
The assemblyman said he believes any costs associated with the legislation
would "come back tenfold" because healthy workers don't use as much sick time.
But for Tiffany Fattizzi, 10, the third-place winner, the issue is not about
worker productivity. It is about having her parents "always be there."
"It's not just to take care of me and buy me stuff, but to give me advice
and lead me through my life," Fattizzi said.
Brian Cade, of Borden Avenue, acknowledged that he takes his good health for
granted but won't be remiss about getting an annual checkup after reading his
11-year-old daughter's moving letter to him and his wife, Donna.
"I love you both and I hope we will be able to spend time together for a
long time. You are very important to me, and I would hate to see you go through
pain," wrote Kellie Cade, the second-place winner.
Jenkinson's donated a complimentary all-day pass to Jenkinson's beach,
amusements and aquarium for the first-place winner and his family. The second-
and third-place winners received four passes to the aquarium.
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