Children interacting with community partners at 2024 "Safety Town" (provided)
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — This weekend, MUSC Children’s Health is teaming up with local first responders to keep kids safe and have some fun while doing it.
The event, called “Safety Town,” is free for the community and part of a national effort to raise awareness about childhood injuries, one of the leading causes of death among children across the country. It also comes ahead of National Injury Prevention Day, recognized nationwide on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
On Saturday, Nov. 15, children in Charleston will get the chance to hop on a tricycle and ride through a miniature city, complete with a fire station, police department, school, and hospital. Along the way, they’ll learn about safety and meet the community partners who help 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 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 says the event highlights a serious issue seen often inside MUSC’s trauma center.
“We see preventable injuries come into our trauma center all the time,” she said. “Oftentimes they do have to do with bicycle accidents, car wrecks, things like that. So this day is really important for us, especially because we are a member site of the organization that founded National Injury Prevention Day, which is the Injury Free Coalition for Kids. So we really like to highlight this day as a member organization, but also because we know that this is affecting our community.”
The event – hosted by MUSC Children’s Health, the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, and Safe Kids Charleston Area – will also include local first responders and community partners who’ll talk with families about their roles in keeping kids 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 explained.
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From bike safety to everyday decision-making, the goal is to give kids practical tools for staying 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,” Vassy said. “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 feature free bike helmets, face painting, local mascots, and plenty of hands-on learning.
“We do have the free bike helmets, we have free face painting,” Vassy added. “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” takes place Saturday, Nov. 15, at the North Charleston Athletic Complex at 1455 Monitor St., North Charleston, SC 29405, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. It’s free and open to everyone, though registration in advance is encouraged.
Anyone interested in attending should email [email protected].