Children learn safety skills at village

The annual Swanton Safety Village was held last week at Crestwood Elementary School.

There was both a morning session and an afternoon sessions. Overall, 69 students participated.

Safetysaurus greeted the children as they came in and waved goodbye at the end of each session. Children learned safety songs, raps and finger plays in music class each day.

A village was set up on the blacktop with different buildings, streets and sidewalks, a stop light and a railroad track. Children went out to the village each day where they practiced crossing the street half the time and got to ride on Big Wheels with seat belts the other half.

On Wednesday, the children practiced crossing the street by going for a walk down Parkside Drive. Then, on Friday, the children walked with adults to the corner of Church and Main to practice crossing an actual stop light.

Graduation ceremonies were held Friday at 10:45 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.

There were also various speakers throughout the week. On Monday, the children learned school bus safety from Swanton bus driver Kelly Harlett and playground safety.

On Tuesday, they learned water safety and were taught about the rescue squad by Swanton EMS. The kids then learned about electricity and bike and gun safety on Wednesday.

Thursday the Swanton Fire Department was on hand to teach fire safety and show the children a fire truck. They were also taught railroad safety that day by Steve Rathke of Norfolk Southern. They wrapped up the week with poison safety and review with Christy Merillat, Fulton County Safety Director.

Mark Philippi was the director of this year's Safety Village. Teachers were Lindsay Vance, Laurie Sugg, Linda Doyle, Josh Andrews and Miranda Chapa. Adult aide was Jenni Nijakowski and other aides were Alex Peterson, Leigha Sugg, Erin Griffith and Sarah Philippi.