Hard to believe the school year is over!  But that doesn’t mean Safety City staff are out for the summer!  We have been busy wrapping up programs and planning the new ones for next year.
The past  two months we have been working on site delivering our Bike Safety program to 880 Grade 3 and 4 students.  A couple of the highlights were the faces of students when we informed them of the traffic fine increases… they looked shocked and worried about their allowance money!
So for fun we handed out tickets if they violated any traffic laws, instead of money we used the “Three Strikes You’re Out Rule” and we didn’t have too many problems! 
It was a great way to let them know that even when operating a bike you need to follow the law.  We had a blast with every group, and after a bit of a breather we will be ready for next year!

As for summer programs is has really quieted down.  For one week in July we will be once again hosting the AMA School Patrollers Camp, and we will be visiting several of the  It’s a B.L.A.S.T. Summer Programs with some fun summer safety games!

Program Totals

Often we don’t know exactly how many students we see with each program until the end of the year.  Each year the school secretaries help us out by providing the total number of students in their school for the grades we teach (K – Gr. 6).  We add these up based on the number of schools and the grades.
These numbers are important to our donors, sponsors and ourselves, to help us know how to grow,  who is receiving our programs and sometimes just for the sheer awe factor of how many students Patti and Jessica see in one school year!

Below are the programs we offered this year and the number of students that received that program.

2002-2003 School Year
 Pedestrian Safety On-Site                             1522
 Bullying                                                            6279
 Home Safety/Internet Safety                         6339
 Outdoor Play                                                    6379
 Bike Safety On-Site                                           880
 Total Number of Student Contacts            21,399

Safety City Sod Laying - July 12
Lend a hand laying sod, stay for refreshments!  Call the office for more information.

Safety City Grand Opening& Citizen’s Day - August 30
Come celebrate the completion of our site with a penny carnival, refreshments, and donor recognition ceremony. You don’t want to miss watching our younger citizens run Safety City for the day!

The past several months have been a bit stressful financially.  The Safety City Board of Directors have done an
amazing job of ensuring that this program which saw over 21,000 students this year is able to continue!

On Saturday, June 14 Safety City held our first Dinner and Auction at Exhibition Park.  It was an evening of dinner served by Sven Ericksen‘s, entertainment, live and silent auctions.  Through many donations, sponsors and volunteers we had a very successful event!  We succeeded in raising over $15,000 in support of Safety City programs.
A huge thank you goes out to the people who attended the event, all of our many sponsors, and The Safety City Board who volunteered many extra hours to make this event such a wonderful night!
Our fundraising efforts have not stopped there!  Throughout the summer months we are BBQ’ing at the BRICK and we are also part of the Canbra Foods Golf Tournament on August 28.

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Citizenship Campaign Kick off– Fall 2003!

This Fall we are kicking off our Citizenship Campaign to coincide with the school year.  For $20/family you can become citizens of Safety City, supporting our efforts in making our community a safer place for all students and their families.  A Citizenship gives you free Parent Clinics, access to our materials, and personal invites to our events held during the year, including a Citizens Festival for all our citizens!

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We start learning about health and safety in the cradle!*
By Vince Bennett, Labour Affairs Officer, HRDC and Reinhard Dunse, Regional NAOSH

There is a good chance that the young construction worker who refuses to wear his hard hat did not wear a helmet when he played hockey as a child.  The same goes for the reckless taxi driver who at age seven did not watch where she was going on her bicycle.

Sound safety and health practices are learned early, starting from childhood.  Impressing children with the importance of safety-consciousness gives them a better chance of adopting proper safety and health practices at work as adults.  It could even help them to save their lives.

To prevent accidents at home, ensure that no rooms, including the basement and the garage, contain potential hazards for children.  These indispensable measures are a place to start.

When children grow older, it is important to teach them safety rules and insist that they follow them.  They should be aware of the dangers of swimming pools and learn to swim, wear appropriate protective equipment for each sport, and practice the sport in a safe place.  These are things children must learn for their own safety.

Children are great imitators.  Parents who pay no attention to safety themselves will have trouble getting their children to follow safety rules.  If we want our children to be safety-conscious, we have to both teach and follow safety practices ourselves.  Would it not be worthwhile to instill safety-consciousness in our children very early, if we wish them to apply the same principles to their professional lives when they become adults?

Source:  *Edited to leave out time sensitive material with permission by ACICR. Bennett, Vince and Dunse, Reinhard.  “We start learning about health and safety in the cradle!” Injury Control Alberta,
Alberta Center for injury Control & Research, Vol. 5, No. 9, May 2003.

Staff have been busy planning next year’s program schedule, the following is the line up of programs, dates and grades.  We are looking forward to seeing all the staff and students of all School Divisions in the Fall!

We also want to say ‘Good-bye’ to the AWESOME Grade 5 & 6’ers whom we have seen since Kindergarten.  We are sad to know that you are leaving from the Public Elementary Schools to join the ranks of Junior High.  We wish you well as you make the transition in the Fall!!

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