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| Kids on 12th and Kerlin Tagging. At least they all had on bright colored vests. |
What’s wrong with this picture?
I’ll start off by confessing that I hate to see kids participating in Tag Days for a number of reasons.
Without harping on all my reasons, I’ll share my biggest three complaints.
It’s Dangerous.
Don’t we always tell kids to not play in the street? So, why would you put a child in the middle of the street with moving traffic coming from both directions (or 4 directions if it’s a corner).
It’s not profitable or duplicatable.
How much can a group a kids collect on a street corner in a few hours? A couple hundred dollars on a great day? It’s certainly not something they can do more than a couple times a year.
It presents a bad image.
Not everyone is moved to give when they see a small kid in the middle of the street with a cup asking for money. In fact, most kids are so bad at asking for the money that you hardly ever know what they are collecting for. Most people are either annoyed or just feel sorry for the kids having to endure hours standing in the street. But some folks do give out of kindness, ignorance, or guilt. Finally, most of the kids are not in the uniform of the team they represent and just look bad.
!2th and Kerlin Streets is a very popular place to tag. And it’s probably the most dangerous. The street is narrow, cars speed past the traffic light, and large trucks turn on Kerlin coming off of I-95.
I hope it doesn’t take a kid getting run over, or even clipped by a car mirror to stop this dangerous practice of Tag Days.
Actually, I was a part of a drill team as a teenager, and I helped to start one a few years ago. We NEVER had problems until we had problems with STAFF not paying attention to the large group kids, and leaving them on the road with just one or two of us to look after all of them. Kids will be kids, regardless of cars or trucks flying by. Kerlin Street was VERY dangerous with people flying off the highway, and as a result, one of our girls was clipped by a car. We were forced to stop for the day by police officers after we dialed 911 (the driver never stopped). Mind you, the teams are required to have a permit to tag, and insurance as well, so I hope they all do because you never know what can happen. They won’t stop the tagging entirely though because there are VERY minimal ways for teams to raise funds in Chester, if they do not have non-profit status.
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