Crookston’s Washington Elementary School hosted Safety Town, a Community Education Program, last week, June 3 through 6. This annual event is four days full of activities, demonstrations, and knowledge about ways to stay safe. Children attending Safety Town are those who have recently completed Kindergarten and are heading to first grade in the fall. The program is open to a maximum of 40 pre-registered participants.
Once again, this year’s Safety Town Coordinators were Megan Parenteau and Stacy Olson, who teach first grade at Highland Elementary and are veterans at coordinating the event. “It has been around, I believe, since 2001. Stacy Olson has been doing this for 14 years, and I believe this is my twelfth year helping to coordinate the program,” says Parenteau. “We start planning in February. A lot of time and effort go into planning a successful program.”
As in years past, there are multiple stations for the children to visit daily, and this year was no exception. “Every day we have a different safety topic that they are being presented on; they rotate through a station every 15 minutes,” says Parenteau. “We have pedestrian and vehicle safety on the town every single day with the Crookston Police Department.”
Some of the other stations that Safety Town featured dealt with topics such as Home Safety, Bicycle Safety, Gun Safety, Train Safety, Bus Safety, Boat/Water Safety, Playground Safety, Animal Safety, and how and when to Dial 911.
Many agencies were part of Safety Town, including the Crookston Police Department, Crookston Area Ambulance, Safe Kids Grand Forks, the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, the Crookston Fire Department, and more. Parenteau also says that the community’s help and the volunteer group leaders really make this program enjoyable. “It’s a wonderful program and we would absolutely not be able to do it without the generous donations that we receive from the community, as well as all of the presenters that take time off and put in time and energy to help us out this week, including our amazing 19 team leaders that we have this year. We absolutely would not be able to run the program without the help of our volunteers.”
KROX got to chat with a couple of the students and ask what they were learning this week at Safety Town. “To be safe, to be safe around stuff.” Said Gemma Olson. And what was something Lainey Lariviere learned? “Not to be scared when a firefighter comes.”
What was the most fun part of Safety Town? Gemma had this to say. “Driving the cars around.” And what did Lainey like most? “Being the Choo Choo Train,” says Lainey. “In the gym, there are train tracks and we get to go choo choo.” The girls agreed that parents should sign up for Safety Town when registration opens next year because it was a lot of fun.
On Friday, June 6, the final day of Safety Town, the kids had a graduation ceremony, during which they received a certificate and cap. This was followed by a reception.