PRESS RELEASE

---For Immediate Distribution---

June 19, 2006

WALLINGFORD: Officer John Shalkey demands and commands attention when he enters a fifth-grade classroom. Perhaps it's the dark blue uniform dotted with colorful patches and a shiny badge or perhaps it's the gun strapped to his waist.

It may be his booming voice or his seemingly boundless energy that makes these young students sit up straight and focus on him for an hour each week.

Whatever it is that Shalkey has, it seems to work.

Shalkey, the senior member of the Wallingford Police Department with nearly 22 years of service, became the town's first and only Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) educator in 1990. 

Enrique Camarena was an undercover agent for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency who was killed by drug traffickers in 1985.

Nearly every Elks lodge in the state nominated an officer for the award, said Julie Goode, a Wallingford Elk and a member of the lodge's nominating committee.

"We thought that he was just so good with the kids, Goode said. He's been doing this for so long and everyone in the public knows him. We thought he was the perfect choice."

He began his work with children by giving Boy Scout troops tours of the police station and soon got involved in the town's annual bike safety rodeo. Sixteen years ago, he was chosen to lead the DARE program, which is now run at all eight elementary schools and Holy Trinity School.

"For some of these kids, these are topics the parent’s don’t want to touch because they may feel unqualified or inept," said Police Chief Douglas Dortenzio, who wrote a letter of recommendation along with Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. and School Superintendent Kenneth V. Henrici on behalf of Shalkey. "The kids are relying on someone to give them a leg up so they can have a better life for themselves, and he certainly does that."

"I think he certainly has passion for his job and for drug awareness,_ Henrici said. _I look at what he does not really as drug education, but as teaching good decision making. The enthusiasm he brings really rubs off on the kids and the kids certainly absorb his message."

Below: Connecticut Elks Association Vice President’s Buddy Patrizzi and Dennis DiMauro presented Officer John Shalkey with the third annual CT Elks Association Enrique Camerena Award.

 
Pictured: Patricia Dow, Wallingford Elks Drug Awareness Chairman; Kevin McCormick, ER; Debbie Angell, State Drug Awareness Chairman; Officer John Shalkey; Buddy Patrizzi, VP ; and Dennis DiMauro, VP.