BURRILLVILLE – It’s March and the milder weather and warmer temperatures will soon be here, which that means more kids will be outside participating in wheeled sports activities across the region.
The Bus Stop Kids cartoon characters want to remind kids about the importance of wearing a helmet while riding on bikes. Kids are already taking advantage of the milder weather conditions in my neighborhood by riding their bikes up and down my dead end street and in the parking lot behind the nearby plaza. A handful of kids, approximately age 9-years-old to young teenagers, often ride their bikes in this quiet neighborhood on nice days and evenings. Fortunately, they are wearing safety helmets. I’ve given them bike and helmet safety coloring cartoon posters in the past, along with my safety refrigerator magnets to take home with them. They know who I am and so do their parents.
In a few weeks, I will be passing out helmet safety refrigerator magnets, coloring cartoon posters and full color posters to kids and young teens participating with wheeled sports activities at the Burrillville skateboard and bike park located in Harrisville, reminding them about helmet safety and proper usages featuring the Bus Stop Kids. I will be doing the same thing at other area skateboard and bike parks in an effort to help keep kids and teens safer in other cities, towns and communities.
Over the coming weeks, I will be creating bike, skateboard and rollerblade safety coloring cartoons and writing articles that will be published here as a Sunday feature. Spring is in the air and kids will be more active outdoors while participating with wheeled sports activities over the next few weeks and well into the summer and fall seasons. Wearing helmets can help prevent severe head injuries, and keep kids and young teens out of the hospital emergency rooms.
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.
