On April 29, the JCC of Central New Jersey in Scotch Plains hosted their third annual “Touch a Truck” event. The event was entirely free to attend and open to all members of the community. “Touch a Truck” brought in over 3,500 attendees, running from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
 
For this event, families from throughout the community were invited to bring their children in order to explore vehicles of all types. This included emergency, construction, public service vehicles and more.
 
Many students from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School volunteered to help out at the event.
 
“It’s an amazing event because it gets the whole town involved with people of all ages,” sophomore Abigail Friedman said.
 
Many volunteer organizations provided their vehicles for the event, including the Scotch Plains Rescue Squad, Scotch Plains Fire Department and Scotch Plains Police Department. Other vehicles at the event included a U-Haul truck, a food bank truck, a moving truck, a landscaping truck, Messercola Excavating trucks and a few different buses. On all of the vehicles, children had the chance to climb and explore the interior, while also learning valuable information.
 
An important aspect of the event was the “Hold the Horn” hour, during which no horns, sirens or music were to be used between 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. This hour was designed for children with special needs and auditory sensitivity issues.
 
Aside from the vehicles, children could participate in other fun activities such as face painting, balloon animals, inflatables, rock climbing and a ropes course.
 
“It was so good to see so many people come out and really enjoy the event,” sophomore Tara Wolman said.
 
People were also able to purchase food at various food trucks. These included “Soul Bowls”, “Mac Truck” (mac and cheese truck), “Empanada Guy” (empanada truck) and “Davey B’zz” (shaved iced truck).
 
With the great turnout of the third “Touch a Truck”, the JCC will continue with this event for many years to come.