While most ice cream trucks play a catchy jingle while taking a whirl around the neighborhood, this one flashes red and blue lights with a siren to announce its presence.
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office unveiled its completed ice cream truck Thursday evening at the Hitchcock’s Markets shopping center in Alachua. More than 100 kids, ages 12 and under, submitted artwork for the truck’s design, said Sgt. Paul Pardue, the supervisor of the Youth and Community Resource Unit. The first-place winner, Alexandra Gleason, and second-place winner, Maya Kamel, got to see their artwork displayed on the sides of the truck.
“Some of our deputies were kind of upset; they wanted to do some design,” Pardue said. “Unfortunately, we had to exclude them.”
The ice cream truck is part of Operation CONE, which stands for Community Outreach Neighborhood Engagement, and is meant to foster better relationships between deputies and their communities, he said.
“When we leave, it’s not about who was serving the ice cream, it’s not about the truck, it’s about that deputy and his neighborhood and what he did for them,” Pardue said. “He or she is the hero for the day.”
The unit’s goal is to deploy Operation CONE at least 10 times monthly, he said. The truck was paid for by donations and cost an estimated $25,000, said ACSO spokesperson Art Forgey.
It is the only ice cream truck that belongs to a sheriff’s office fleet in Florida, Pardue said.
The unit plans to start serving vanilla and birthday cake ice cream for free from the truck next week, he said.
Alexandra was ecstatic to see her artwork sprawled on the windows of the truck. The 9-year-old decided to draw colorful ice cream cones melting and doodled “Operation Cone” inside them.
Alexandra considers this artistic debut to be the beginning of a bright future.
“One day I just want to move to (Los Angeles) or Hollywood or New York or something,” she said. “I want to do art, and I want to do dance and all artistic things.”
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Alexandra Gleason, 9, signs her name on her design, which won first place for the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office’s ice cream truck. The truck’s design was unveiled Thursday as part of Operation CONE, which stands for Community Outreach Neighborhood Engagement.
