Manalapan Girl Gets VIP Treatment On Ride To School

MANALAPAN, N.J.— On Friday morning, one Taylors Mills School student went to school in style.

Meghan Niro won a district-wide raffle to be escorted to school by the police, in this case by Lt. Kevin Dobbin and Patrolman Kyle Williams of the Manalapan Township Police Department.

Meghan was the winner of a "Ride to School By the Manalapan Police" gift that was part of a raffle run by the Manalapan-Englishtown Parent Teacher Association.

She arrived at the school with sirens and lights going - and cut through the long drop-off line, her mother, Karen Niro, said. It was the first time such a prize was offered, she added. The family lives on Freehold Road.

In a post on the police department Facebook site, Niro said: "That's my daughter! I cannot express enough my appreciation to Patrolman Williams and Lt. Dobbin for making my daughter Meghan feel like a rock star this morning! Our family will never forget this amazing moment!"

Niro said Meghan, 10, is in the fourth grade at the Taylors Mills School and they attended an ice cream social a few weeks ago in which having a ride with the police was one of the raffle gifts.

"I thought the idea was brilliant," Karen Niro said. And she also put raffle tickets in all the baskets.

At the end of the social, her daughter won the ride and five other prizes. "For years we entered raffles and we never won anything," Karen Niro said. "She was the happiest I ever saw her."

Meghan chose Friday for her day to ride since that was her special day in class, her mother said. She said her daughter's theme for the day was formal day and dance party —so she was all dressed up for the ride, too.

Karen Niro said Meghan's teacher told her her daughter was "beaming when she walked into the classroom."

And the police officers congratulated her in the Facebook post: "Congratulations Meghan, it was our honor to escort you to school this morning!"