A Chilly Thanks For Road Construction Crews

Construction crews in New City got a cool surprise midday Thursday from Cathie and Jim DeVisser who offered them discounted ice creams and free bottles of Gatorade and water from their ice cream truck. 

Mike Morano, who was working with a crew on South Main Street at Collyer Ave, said, “It helps a lot.” 

He thanked the DeVissers numerous times for the $1 snow cones and bag filled with free cold beverages. 

Earlier, the DeVissers of New City stopped their Tim & Dave’s Polar Pops truck on a side street off New Hempstead Road to bring some cold relief to workers toiling on the county road reconstruction project.

Ray Haas of Montgomery said they had to work smarter in the heat which was in the mid to upper 90s. He was taking advantage of his lunch break and enjoying an ice cream in the shade with John Sansevera of Hawthorne and Walter Cook of Poughkeepsie.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” said Cook in between bites of his ice cream. “It’s absolutely beautiful.”

Cathy said she began stopping by the construction crews on Wednesday “because it is hot, hot.” 

When she told them what she was doing, their reaction was disbelief.

“We tell them there is still good in the world and we want to give back and what’s what Timothy would have wanted,” said her husband.

Their son Timothy, who suffered from epilepsy, passed away in January. The couple purchased the ice cream truck for Timothy and his brother, David. They said Timothy would give complimentary ice cream to any firefighter, police or military officer he saw and they wanted to continue that good will effort.

“This is something my son Timothy would have been willing to do and would have wanted very much to be a part of,” she said. 

Cathy explained when the heat wave started, she thought of the construction workers she saw as she drove the truck and how rudely people often treat them by honking or yelling at them. 

“It’s 90 degrees,” she said. “They’re out there working. They’re trying to get something done. Let me do something.”

She said whatever money they are taking in is divided between the business and donating to a scholarship fund in Timothy’s name that is overseen by the Epilepsy Foundation and Canine Assistants, a non profit organization that provides trained canines to help people with Epilepsy, physical disabilities and other illnesses.

The DeVissers hope to continue making the rounds of construction crews once a week through the rest of the summer.