North Charleston, South Carolina. — This weekend, MUSC Children’s Health will collaborate with area first responders to keep children safe while still having fun.
The event, dubbed “Safety Town,” is free to the public and is part of a national campaign to raise awareness about childhood injuries, one of the major causes of mortality among children across the country. It also comes ahead of National Injury Prevention Day, which is observed countrywide on Tuesday, November 18.
On Saturday, November 15, children in Charleston will be able to ride a tricycle through a tiny city, complete with a fire station, police department, school, and hospital. Along the route, they’ll learn about safety and meet the community partners who work to keep families safe every day.
“It just helps us kind of shine a light on the injury prevention work that we do,” said Mary Beth Vassy, MUSC Health’s Pediatric Trauma Injury Prevention Coordinator. “But also how important it is to make sure that we are talking with families and trying to work with them to prevent injuries in our communities for our children.”
Vassy believes the incident underscores a critical issue that occurs frequently in MUSC’s trauma department.
“We see preventable injuries come into our trauma center all the time,” she told me. “They frequently involve bicycle accidents, automobile wrecks, and other similar incidents. So this day is really important to us, especially since we are a member site of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, the group that established National Injury Prevention Day. So, as a member organization, we prefer to celebrate this day, but we also recognize how it affects our community.”
The event, organized by MUSC Children’s Health, the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, and Safe Kids Charleston Area, will also feature local first responders and community partners speaking with families about their roles in keeping children safe.
“We have community partners who kind of represent each of the places in Safety Town, so they can talk to the kids more in depth about what their roles are and kind of what that looks like in their specific area,” Vassy told me.
From bike safety to everyday decision-making, the goal is to provide youngsters with practical tools for keeping safe.
“We’re hoping that kids and families just kind of get a better understanding of how to keep themselves safe in different ways around the community,” says Vassy. “We’re also hoping that we can provide bike helmets to some kids who need them, because we know that oftentimes we have kids who are injured on bicycles that come into our hospital that didn’t have helmets on.”
The event will also include free bike helmets, face painting, local mascots, and a lot of hands-on learning.
“We do have the free bike helmets, we have free face painting,” Vassy went on: “We also have some appearances by some local mascots, which will be exciting — along with just some other great community resources that are available.”
“Safety Town” will take place on Saturday, November 15, at the North Charleston Athletic Complex, 1455 Monitor St., North Charleston, SC 29405, beginning at 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. It’s free and open to the public, but earlier registration is encouraged.
