Sunday cartoon: Spring into bike & helmet safety

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BURRILLVILLE – It’s officially springtime everyone, and, it’s about time!

It has been a very long, cold, snowy and hard winter, but that’s now in the past. Springtime is here and it’s time for kids to put aside their cell phones and laptops and go outside for some fun and activities.

The Bus Stop Kids are popular cartoon characters and this Sunday’s safety feature coloring cartoon reminds kids to be safer while riding bikes and to always wear protective helmets. In my travels, I see a lot of kids riding their bikes, but what I don’t see a lot of are bike helmets.

Every child should be wearing a bike helmet and some protective gear to help keep them out of harm’s way if they should happen to fall down while riding their bikes. Chances are, that will happen at one time or another. Bike helmets help protect kids from brain injuries that could have a direct impact on their entire lives if there is a severe fall.

I understand that there is a stigma with kids, especially boys, that helmets aren’t cool or they look funny, and other kids make fun of kids for wearing a bike helmet. These kids are teased and bullied by boys that don’t wear helmets. So, maybe we need more bike helmet safety materials for kids – just like this – along with more articles and content that tries to remove that embedded stigma by reaching more families and opening doors to communication regarding safety.

This bike and helmet safety coloring cartoon has enough room available for kids to write in their voice box safety tips and messages. Give them a voice. Let them be part of the creative process. Grade schools, daycares and libraries are perfect environments where kids could do this and share their safety tips and messages with their classmates, friends and family members. Pediatric doctors offices, family clinics, community centers and bike safety rodeos are also great distribution establishments and locations. Have a safety coloring contest and challenge other community schools, daycares and libraries with creative bike and helmet safety tips and messages added to this coloring cartoon. Winners receive pizza coupons or pizza party partnering with local pizza shops. Kids love pizza!

Don’t have time to coordinate or quite know how to make this happen? Contact me at jwpisces14@aol.com and I will help make that happen.

Have a great spring season everyone! 

Jim Weicherding is a Burrillville resident, and the founder and creator of an award-winning traffic safety effort Seasons of Safety. Weicherding contributes kids’ coloring cartoons, which can be printed and used to help parents discuss safety issues with their children. He has a long list of police officers and firefighters in his family and has worked with law enforcement and firefighters in a creative public safety capacity for more than two decades. Jim was also appointed to Children Across America as their events and creative director for their child safety programs initiatives and outreach kids safety campaigns nationwide.

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