Murphy Elementary School first-graders traveled to Safetyville on Thursday, May 6, 2010, and left with lessons on how to stay safe every day.
Students from the classes of Denise Beachum and Elizabeth Kopchick took a field trip to the National Guard Armory in Lapeer to meet with Lapeer County Deputy Stacy Stimson and his team in Safetyville, a realistic, miniature town with streets, sidewalks, traffic lights, railroad
crossings and buildings. Stimson led the students through a series of fun exercises with a serious goal — keeping them safe in a variety of situations they encounter daily.
Stimson taught students to look both ways before crossing streets and to be aware of and observe traffic signals and signs for vehicles and pedestrians. He taught them what to do if a stranger tries to get them into a car, the importance of wearing a helmet when riding a bicycle
and about the dangers of playing with matches.
Safetyville’s lessons also address gun safety, with Stimson giving the children a four-step plan of action: “Stop, don’t touch it, leave the area and tell an adult.”
After the instructions, students got to put some of the advice into action. Climbing on toy tractors, they rode through town while obeying a working traffic light and traffic signs and learning to watch out for pedestrians at intersections. As some of the students rode through
town, others walked along the sidewalks, learning to watch for vehicles that might not be watching out for them.
Stimson said Lapeer County Sheriff Ron Kalanquin implemented the Safetyville program 30 years ago and that it is presented to every district in the county, with about 1,200 first-graders attending every year. Stimson has presented the program for 25 of those years and said he still uses the original equipment and buildings. “These tractors each have 100,000 miles on them,” he jokes.
Deputy Bill Bishop, Reserve Deputy Alex Romig and volunteers Amy Hoffman, Diane Pier, Margaret Smith and Sandy Evach assist Stimson in Safetyville.
“They are all angels,” Pier said of the children visiting Safetyville. “We need to keep them safe.”
