By Jordan Studer
jstuder@wbcowqel.com
Monday morning began the third annual Safety Town at Bucyrus Elementary School. Kids ages 4 to 6 gather for a week to learn the importance of safety as a pedestrian.
What started out as a Girl Scout community service project for Bucyrus student Sarah Lipscomb turned into much more. Lipscomb wanted to help out the police department in any way that she could. The idea of Safety Town was mentioned, to which Lipscomb had no clue what it all entailed.
The explanation was given that Safety Town had not been around in Bucyrus for over 20 years. With that, Lipscomb was all in for the idea.
“I thought it would be something great to bring back just because the basic safety skills that most of us have, a lot of kids weren’t being taught, resulting in a lot of children and pedestrian accidents,” Lipscomb explained.
After agreeing to the project, Lipscomb realized how much work was really involved in organizing an event such as this. Since almost 20 years had gone by since the last Safety Town, the curriculum for the program had gone right with it.
Once all of the curriculum was completed and sponsorship from the city was received, the first year of Safety Town was ready to commence. Now, after two years under their belts, the knowledge of the volunteers has increased with the experience.
“It’s definitely, at least for most of us, it’s a little smoother now that we know what is going on. Not that it always goes that way,” Lipscomb laughed.
Lipscomb was very excited to say that new additions have been made to the program. There are now two sessions, morning and afternoon. This change was made to accommodate a total of 80 children. More buildings have been added to “The Village”, as well as locations such as the railroad tracks.
The health department will also make an appearance with a discussion on poison safety and poison control. A representative from Avita will also be present to show kids how they should properly wash their hands.
Members of the Bucyrus Police Department and the Fire Department were willing to give their time to such a great cause. When asked about the importance of having Safety Town, Bucyrus Police Chief Dave Koepke was very quick to answer.
“It’s so important to prepare the kids because now they are going to be going to school and some will be walking to school, and we want them to be safe. We get complaints all the time from the public about kids jaywalking, crossing the street the wrong way, blocking traffic and we want to teach as many kids as possible how to do it the right way,” Koepke replied.
It is clear that all of the volunteer hands value the safety of the children and instruct the children with smiles. One Bucyrus student, Sarah Beck, is volunteering her time because she knows that drivers can be reckless and she wants to help teach kids to pay attention.
“People are not very good drivers and they could get really hurt if they don’t learn this stuff,” Beck passionately explains.
Another slightly younger volunteer, Brooklyn Ryland, completed Safety Town in 2014 when it first started up again. Although looking at the police dog was Ryland’s favorite part, she also said she learned a lot.
Something that Ryland learned that she thinks is important for all kids to learn is to pay attention when crossing the street. Ryland emphasizes that kids should “look across the street, so they don’t get ran over.”
It is clear that Safety Town has already played a very important role in the community in just the three short years that it has been here. With 55 kids signed up for this year, the hopes are high that many more will continue to show interest each year.
PHOTO GALLERY: 2016 Bucyrus Safety Town
