ANDOVER – Children entering kindergarten are getting their first real taste of being independent in a big world.
Safety Town teaches those children some basic skills to assist them as they head off to school for the first time.
“This is for children going into kindergarten and it’s to help them learn bus safety and 911, what to do in an emergency and what number to call,” Betsy Paul, children’s librarian at Andover Public Library, said. “A lot of kids, you ask them what their parents’ names are and they say, ‘Mom.’ We’re teaching them their parents’ names and the best phone number to call when there’s an emergency.”
Safety Town was sponsored by Andover Public Library and hosted at Andover Christian Church during the week of July 20-24.
“I think it’s very important because we had to tell the parents they need to have a fire safety plan because none of them had safety plans ready and places to meet outside of their homes,” Paul said.
The library’s participation is important, as well.
“It lets them know that we’re part of the community because we go out in the community,” Paul said. “It’s community based and lets them know that we have programs not just in the library, but outside of the library, also.”
Every child entering kindergarten in the Pymatuning Valley Local Schools was invited to participate in Safety Town. Twelve of them participated.
“We’re considered a school district library, so we cover the entire Pymatuning Valley school district,” Amy Jenick, president of the Friends of the Andover Public Library, said. “It’s really easy for us. We put them in the packets for every single kid that registers for kindergarten in the spring. All of the kids are, at some point, going to wind up having to do something at the library. It gets them get them a little bit more involved with the library, too, if they haven’t been there up until that point.”
Safety Town opened with a visit from Andover Police Chief Chirstopher Baker and PV SRO Joe Cooper.
“We always start off with a police officer, Chief Baker,” Paul said. “Safety Town was started in conjunction with the help of our community partners.”
“(Cooper) introduced himself to the kids,” Paul continued. “Most of the kids that are here are from Pymatuning Valley, so they will see him in school on a regular basis, and they got a chance to meet him.”
The fire department talked with the kids about fire safety on Tuesday.
“When the fire department comes, they talk about having a family meeting place and coming up with a fire safety plan, so the kids know two different ways to get out of every room,” Jenick said. “We actually had a FEMA packet. It’s got those Sesame Street characters in it. We handed that out to all the families so that they could read about the fire safety with the kids. Most families don’t even think about that they don’t think about it until there’s an emergency and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, what do I do?’”
“They come in and put on their gear and take them out and let them check out all the sirens and lights and what’s on the truck,” Jenick continued.
There were guests the rest of the week, as well.
“Each day we do something different,” Paul said. “Wednesday was the ambulance. Thursday is normally our big safety day because we used to tour the emergency room. It’s bus safety, and we ride the bus. One of the bus drivers comes and talks about the hand signals if you have to cross the street and getting on and off the bus. We do a fire drill, show the kids how to get off if there’s a fire. We take a bus ride and because the train part in our bus song, she takes us up Route 6 to Hayes Road because we have the tracks.”
The kids seemed to enjoy the visit from Community Care Ambulance.
“They had a blast with the ambulance this year,” Jenick said. “The people that came with the ambulance let them try so many things. He put the leads for the EKG on somebody’s leg so that they could see their heart on the monitor. They let the kids try out a whole bunch of stuff, so it was fun.”
The children even received some instruction on dealing with pets.
“This year, we had some dog safety,” Jenick said. “We’ve got someone at the library who is part of a dog therapy group, and they bring a couple of dogs. The kids got to pet them once they learned about how to do it. They learned about asking the owner for permission and how they introduce themselves to the dog and how to read the dog’s body signals. Some of it even go for when they have dogs at home. If your dog is eating out of his dish, you don’t mess with the dog. They don’t like it when you’re in their faces.”
On Friday, the children put on a presentation where they sing songs with choreography about what they’ve learned before they graduate from Safety Town.
“The kids learn much better when they’re having fun,” Jenick said. “If you’re trying to sit there and just lecture to them, it’s in one ear and out the other.”
“I’m trained as a teacher,” Jenick continued. “I know some of the things that I see done at the elementary school here now and they incorporate movement into it because it helps remember. You think better when there’s movement attached to it.”
The singing and dancing do seem to help.
“I’ve had a couple kids that are in second grade who’ve come up to me and said, ‘Stop, drop and roll!’” Paul said. “I say, ‘Yes!’”
Safety Town was started by Leo Wisniewski and the late Kathleen Jones decades ago.
“This has been going on for decades,” Paul said. “I remember when it used to be at the Catholic Church. I’ve been at the library for 31 years and it’s been going on since before that. There were a few years where we didn’t do it. We didn’t do it during COVID, but we’ve done it pretty much every year for decades.”
