During the Township Council meeting on May 9, Crossroads North Middle School student, Brandon Wildemuth, presented a petition that calls for a smoking ban in township parks.
By: Joseph Harvie
Brandon Wildemuth is concerned about the effects of secondhand smoke on children.
So concerned that the 12-year-old got 147 of his fellow Crossroads North Middle School students to sign a petition that calls for the township to ban smoking in township parks.
He presented the petition to the Township Council at its May 9 meeting asking them to ban smoking in at least one of the parks.
"I am here tonight, knowing how much you care about the kids in this community, to present my petition and propose you draft an ordinance to make a minimum of one major park in town (like Reichler or Woodlot), smoke-free," Brandon said at the meeting.
Mayor Frank Gambatese said the council was so impressed with the presentation that they have agreed to discuss it at its next work session, scheduled for June 6.
"I talked to a couple of council people and we are going to discuss it at the next workshop," Mayor Gambatese said Tuesday. "Everyone thinks it’s a good idea to prohibit smoking on public lands."
On Monday, Brandon said that although he only asked for one of the parks to be smoke-free he would like to see all of them smoke-free.
"If there is no smoking in parks, it would be healthier for little kids in the parks, because their lungs are smaller and it can hurt kids who are playing there," Brandon said.
Brandon said that he came up with the idea for the petition on April 5, National Kick Butts Day, when he was holding an anti-smoking game as part of the Rebel 2 program at the middle school. Rebel 2 is an anti-drug and alcohol group run through Crossroads Middle School, which he said has 12 members.
"While we were playing a game in the lunchroom, I went table to table asking the other students to sign the petition," Brandon said.
He said that he didn’t face much opposition and had hoped to get the petition signed by students throughout the district, but didn’t have time to get that organized.
"I would have liked to have gotten more, but I figured 148 was enough signatures," Brandon said.
Christine Wildemuth, Brandon’s mother and the director of the Township Office on Aging, said she is happy to see her son taking a stance on the issue and approaching the council.
"In this day and age, with the electronics and video games, I am glad to see that he cares about something in the community," Ms. Wildemuth said.
She said he does face some opposition from classmates who think that his stance is "uncool."
"It is hard for him, because he does get teased about being anti-drugs and anti-smoking because that’s not considered ‘cool,’ " Ms. Wildemuth said. "But the peer pressure doesn’t bother him."
She said that no one in her family smokes and she doesn’t know where Brandon developed his anti-smoking stance.
"He just doesn’t like the smell of it," Ms. Wildemuth said.
"It is like putting poison in your body if you smoke or drink alcohol," Brandon said. "And I don’t like to see people doing that to themselves."
Brandon said that he was upset one day when he was playing soccer in Sondek Park and his mother started moving away from parents who were smoking at the game.
"It’s not fair," Brandon said. "I looked over and my mom was far away. Moms shouldn’t be so far away at their children’s soccer games."
After the game Brandon began researching banning smoking in parks and came across an ordinance passed in June 2005 by East Brunswick. According to the ordinance, smoking is only allowed in designated areas of the parks. Ms. Wildemuth said that smoking is only allowed in the parking lot areas of the East Brunswick parks.
Brandon said that he won’t give up his mission.
"If it’s on the agenda, then I’ll be at the meeting," Brandon said.

