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Crime & Safety

Tots Learn Lifesaving Lessons at Safety Town

About 1,300 kindergarteners and first graders from Naperville will graduate this summer from what is considered one of North America's best Safety Towns.

With miniature buildings, mimicking a real city, street crossings and even a train, Naperville’s Safety Town may look like fun and games but it is preparing children to respond to emergencies.

The program is completing the last of its six summer sessions Friday.  During the last six weeks it has graduated about 1,300 Naperville kindergarteners and first graders, said Sydney Seguino, site director for Naperville’s Safety Town.

Seguino has served as site director for five years and has been volunteering with Safety Town for 14 years. She said she knows the program is preparing Naperville’s children to react to emergencies.

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“I remember a week after one of our kids graduated their house caught on fire,” Seguino said. “The 5-year-old was telling the family what to do.”

Thursday the last group of 2011 completed fire safety. In one station the children sprayed a fire hose from outside Safety Town toward a pine tree along Aurora Avenue. The children laughed and giggled as water rushing at about 200 gallons per minute made its way through the tree; spraying some eastbound cars.

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The kids also learned about equipment used in an ambulance. Seguino said the firsthand experience teaches children that an ambulance crew, and its machines, are there to help not harm them.

The one thing children always remember about fire safety day is the smokehouse, said Leanne Meyer-Smith, president of the Naperville Junior Women’s Club, which funds Safety Town. A smokehouse fills up with carbon dioxide from a fog machine, allowing those inside to practice escaping a smoke-filled room.

Seguino said the children learn more than just fire safety during the five-day program. Safety Town also addresses electrical safety, animal control, bus safety, railroad crossings, water safety, poison control, personal safety and seat belt use.

Naperville’s Safety Town is recognized as one of the best Safety Towns in all of North America, Meyer-Smith said. Seguino said she receives calls from as far away as Texas asking how to develop a program and site similar to Naperville’s.

The group, however, isn’t content. Meyer-Smith said she would like to see Naperville’s Safety Town add more interactive areas, like the smokehouse.

“Kids are looking for graphic, interactive experiences,” Meyer-Smith said. “We want to make more rooms that have an experience like Disney or Universal but, of course, not as large.”

Expanding the program is challenging, Meyer-Smith said. Naperville’s Safety Town does not receive funding from any government body and relies financially on the Naperville Junior Women’s Club, which does fundraising for the program.

Seguino said the program relies on volunteers to be successful. Most of the volunteer support over the course of the six-week program is provided from 350 teenagers, many who are graduates of Safety Town.

“I would say 80 percent of our volunteers are graduates, and that’s a low estimate,” Seguino said. “We’re so lucky to have the support of them and the community.”

For more information about Naperville’s Safety Town visit: http://www.napervillejuniors.org/Safety.htm

Naperville’s Safety Town will hold an informational meeting on Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. at Safety Town for those interested in becoming involved with the program.

Registration for 2012 Safety Town begins April 9, 2012.

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