By Michael Bennett
Local Journalism Initiative
The Ridgetown Independent News
Lynne and Daniel Froelich came to Ridgetown from Colorado recently to visit family.
Little did they know they would wind up getting arrested.
Fortunately, the couple from Boulder didn’t get thrown into jail to make little rocks out of big boulders.
But they were ‘arrested’ as the first ‘Tourists of the Week’ by the Ridgetown Business Improvement Association’s ‘sheriff’ Jim Brown and ‘deputy’ John Wright.
“You have been duly charged with entering the friendliest town in Ontario, Canada – Ridgetown,” Brown said in reading the ‘citation’ to the Froelichs. “You have pleaded guilty to the charge, and we, the merchants, sentence you to sign our guest book, be photographed for our files, accept these gifts on behalf of the merchants, and be our guest as the Ridgetown Tourists of the Week. We sincerely hope you enjoy your stay in our town, have a safe journey, and return to the ‘Friendliest Town in Ontario.’”
East Kent Coun. John Wright and Brown, chair of the BIA, then presented the Froelichs with a basket full of goodies from Ridgetown merchants.
“This is a beautiful town,” the Froelichs said. “We are so happy to be here.”
They were in town to visit Daniel’s sister, Cheryl Thornton, and brother-in-law, Matthew Giffin.
The Ridgetown BIA resurrected the Tourist of the Week program in 2023 after it had been dormant for 11 years.
The late Doug Smith, the community’s recreation director, was instrumental in getting the Tourist of the Week program started in 1968, with assistance and co-operation of Elsie Reynolds, Ridgetown’s event coordinator and Ridge House Museum curator, the Chamber of Commerce and the Ridgetown detachment of the OPP.
OPP officers would ‘pull over and arrest’ random drivers with out-of-town identification stickers or out-of-province and American license plates.
Instead of being hauled into the police station, the arrested parties would be escorted to a predetermined location where they were greeted by a welcoming committee and showered with gifts from several businesses in the ‘Friendliest Town In Ontario.’
The promotion drew national and international attention, including a mention in Reader’s Digest magazine.
The OPP continued to pull people over every week – in a respectful manner so they wouldn’t be alarmed – for another 30 years.
Things, however, changed with amalgamation in 1998, and the Chatham-Kent Police Service was contracted to provide law enforcement for the entire municipality, including communities such as Ridgetown, which used to be under OPP jurisdiction.
Many CKPS officers were reluctant to participate in the promotion, and even the ones who were interested often got called away for duty just as town officials were prepared to conduct the promotion.
“It got to the point where we couldn’t do it when we wanted because there was no guarantee we would have an officer available,” Brown said.
The Chamber of Commerce and local merchants tried to keep the promotion going, but it was eventually ceased around 2012.
Brown and Wright were instrumental in bringing the tradition back in 2023, as the BIA and local merchants showered the weekly ‘arrested parties’ with gifts on behalf of ‘The Friendliest Town in Ontario.’
