We are hoping that ther are many of you with itchy hands and feet out there, excited about summer and anxious to get started. We are looking for people to help us out for our site workday and sod-laying. We are very excited because this means we are so close to having the site finished! If you want to get a little dirty, and have some fun check out the Upcoming Events section or give us a call or email for more information.

SAFETY EDUCATION

With the arrival of spring, also comes many fun-filled hours on bikes, scooters and rollerblades. We just finished delivering our new program "Get in the Helmet Habit", encouraging students to wear their helmets correctly when participating in these activities. This program comes at a time when provincial legislation has been passed regarding the wearing of helmets on bikes by those younger than 18.
We demonstrated the idea in each class with our unique 'egg helmets'. We then dropped the egg without the helmet. We broke a lot of eggs, and hopefully made a lot of students think about the importance of wearing a helmet!

This spring also marks the second time we are offering our Bicycle Program on-site. In May and June we hope to see many Grade 3 and 4 students practicing their cycling skills on our biles that were donated by Tim Horton's last year. Both the Helmet program and the on-site Bike program are quite timely with the Safe Kids Week theme for 2002 - "Kids on Wheels". Keep your eyes peeled for events!

The Safety City Society of Lethbridge held its Annual General Meeting on March 7, 2002 at the Henderson Golf Club. Here are some highlights:

• Emily Redel, a Grade 6 student, came to speak about her experience of Safety City over the past 6 years. It was nice to hear the many positive things she had to say about Safety City.
• That evening we saw a cabinet shuffle and added some new faces to our Board. Jack Fulwiler stepped up to President as we said good-bye to Jeffrey Coffman our long time executive member and friend. We welcomed Maj. Glen Habkirk to our board as the Kiwanis Rep., and Dr. Keith Robin changed chairs to now head up our Fundraising Committee. Brian Walker shuffled from a committee member to the Chairperson of the Education Committee. Welcome to all of you!
• We want to extend a warm thank you to the crew from the Medicine Hat Safety City Society for driving out and braving the weather on the way home!
• And thanks and appreciation to 93.3 The Hawk for the door prizes, Henderson Lake Golf Club for the great meal, and to all those who attended. We hope you had a great time!

• Volunteer Celebration Breakfast
  April 27 - 10 AM - Noon
  Come and celebrate volunteers with a continental breakfast and performances at Galt Gardens.
• Southern Alberta Emergency Services Family Day
  June 1st - Exhibition Park
  Check out the activities and events related to family safety!
• Safe Kids Week
  June 1-8
  Look for local events and activities.
• Environment Week Festival
  June 8th
  This year's theme is "Alternative Transportation". Hope to see you there!
• Sod Laying and Site Workday
  June 15th
  Bring your gloves, your shovels, get a little dirty and help us beautify Safety City!
• 1st Choice Savings and Credit Union Garage Sale
  June 22 - 8 AM - 2 PM
  Bring us your stuff, some of it or all of it! We will sell it to raise money for Safety Education programs. Call or email us to drop it off or we will come pick it up.

For more information on any of these events, or you just want to chat about all the things we do, call us at 317-1955 or email Patti Caven at Patti@theboss.net

In 1998 and in 1999 there were 13,637 bicycle related injury visits to emergency departments - an average of more than 6,800 per year. Of these visits, 93% were non-traffic related injuries.* Please wear your helmets!

*source: Alberta Center for Injury Control and Research. Vol. 4, No. 8 April 2002, pp.4

The following list of items are a few things we could use around Safety City. Give us a call or email us if you would like to donate or sponsor the purchase of any of these items. We would appreciate it very much!

• 2 instructor bikes
• white boards
• gardening tools (i.e. rake, hoes, watering hose)
• bike racks
• lawn mower
• trees, flowers, shrubs for landscaping
• misc office supplies

Minnesota Safety Council "Safe-A-Roonie Homepage"
Government of Alberta Traffic Safety Initiative
Rad Rider's Website - Bicycle and Traffic Safety
Vince and Larry's Safety City
Internet and Computer Safety:
www.livewwwires.com
www.webwisekids.com

Safety City: "Reducing childhood injuries through safety education."