May 6, 2008

By: Shelby McNary

On Wednesday, May 30, the Teens as Teachers gave presentations to Waterville Grade School and Preschool students. The TAT group, comprised of senior Andrea Brandt, juniors Shelby McNary and Becca Christie, sophomore Tim Laughlin, and freshman Ellie Musil, worked under the guidance of sponsor Kathy Steinfort to prepare the safety presentations for the day. Topics to be covered during the day included bike safety, indoor safety, and outdoor safety.

The TAT received the bicycle safety kit from the Marshall County Safe Kids program. Safe Kids, a national program funded by Bell Sports, is committed to keeping kids across the United Sates safe from bicycle and other wheel-related injury and death. Tami Stowell, Marshall County Safe Kids coordinator viewed the presentations. Parents as Teachers sponsored a carseat safety check at the preschool from 12 PM-2 PM allowing parents to have their carseat checked when picking up their child from school.

The first presentation of the day was for the preschool students. Musil and McNary spoke with the students about indoor and outdoor safety. They encouraged children to buckle up when traveling in a vehicle, to practice safe bicycling skills, and to keep safety in mind at the swimming pool. Students were then given individual sunscreen packets, booster seat brochures, and coloring sheets.

"I really loved talking with the preschoolers. They are such active participants in discussion, it really made my job a lot easier," explained McNary.

Next, Laughlin and McNary presented to kindergarteners. The two led discussion by utilizing safety coloring books which were distributed to all students. Discussion included 911 phone calls, gun safety, fire safety, and outdoor safety.

The first and second graders combined for outdoor activities on safety led by the teens. The first station, headed by Laughlin, invited students who had brought their bikes to school to check and see if they were safe to ride by using the "ABC" method. The ABC method encourages students to check the air (A) in their tires to make sure they are not flat or losing air, the brakes (B) by making sure that the front brakes don’t reach the handle bars when pulled, and the chains (C) to insure no links are missing.

After they had checked their bikes, students continued on to a bicycle obstacle course created by Brandt and Christie. Students were to weave their bike around cones and brake on command to demonstrate the control that the riders should have at all times.

The next station the students participated in was a helmet fitting station. Musil led discussion on the importance of protecting the head when bicycling and the effectiveness of helmets. She then fitted each student with a helmet and demonstrated how to test the fit of their helmets at home.

"I was excited to teach such an important topic in bicycle safety. I had a lot of fun talking with the kids and I hope they learned a lot," commented Musil.

The final station students traveled to was a station on general safety. Discussion was led by McNary and included safety tips about bicycles, swimming, skin protection, fires, guns, homes, and strangers.

All participants were given a safety reflector for their bicycle and sunscreen at the end of the day and names were drawn for four different helmets.

Information was organized and provided by Steinfort and given to the teens on the day of presentations.