By Lindsey Rowland
lrowland@wbcowqel.com
Those who insist that learning isn’t fun haven’t been to Safety Town in Bucyrus, nor have they talked to the kids who have.
Adults know not to cross the street without looking twice, but somewhere along the line, we have to have been taught the proper rules of safe living. From this reasoning, Bucyrus Safety Town was created as a venue for young kids to learn and practice the habits and regulations that could save lives.
Throughout the week, a mock village has been set up in the parking lot of the Bucyrus Elementary School where participants in Safety Town, while cruising on tricycles and little big wheels, have learned road safety. In addition to the village experience, the kids have learned hand signals, received visits from the police force who brought along their dogs, the fire department brought their trucks, a smokehouse, and their mascot, Sparky, and the ambulance also appeared as they learned to call 911, cross the street, and watched some videos on safety topics provided by AAA.
Thirteen-year-old Sarah Lipscomb organized the event out of a desire to help the police department after budget cuts, as well as to pursue a Girl Scout project she was interested in. According to Lipscomb, she started the project and it snowballed from there.
“I think Safety Town is really important to teach the kids their basic safety skills that otherwise they wouldn’t learn,” Lipscomb said, “They’re very important, I was very surprised at how much they didn’t know about their basic safety; crossing the street and calling 911, things like that. They’ve just started to grow and kind of mature. I think it’s amazing what it’s turned into.”
Safety Town will wrap up this week, turning out young kids who, through the help and support of volunteers and public safety forces, will now know how to function safely in our community.
A photo gallery of the Safety Town experience for youngsters can be found on the Photo page.