Story by: Joe Hall on April 16, 2019
If you were a second-grader in Jefferson County after 1993, chances are you took a field trip to Safety City.
For 25 years, nearly 150,000 second-grade students from private, public, parochial and home school programs in Metro Louisville have visited Safety City, a model city located behind Bates Elementary School on Bardstown Road in Fern Creek.
A full-day educational program, Safety City consists of classroom training followed by hands-on lessons where children drive battery powered miniature cars through the miniature city, which includes buildings, a railroad crossing, school bus, working traffic lights and stop signs.
“From the very beginning, the vision for Safety City was to create a fun and interactive experience with the goal of reducing preventable injuries and saving lives,” said Lynnie Meyer, Ed.D., R.N., CFRE, senior vice president and chief development officer, Norton Healthcare. “We believe this program has made a significant impact in our community.”
Safety City primarily is funded through the Children’s Hospital Foundation with additional support from the Jefferson County Board of Education, Louisville Metro Government, Dr. & Mrs. Richard S. Wolf, Citi Cards and the James Graham Brown Foundation.
You can designate a gift to the Children’s Hospital Foundation to benefit Safety City. HelpNortonChildrens.com
The Safety City curriculum was developed in collaboration with Jefferson County Public Schools, Norton Children’s Prevention & Wellness and the Louisville Metro Police Department. A retired police officer and a safety expert from Norton Children’s Prevention & Wellness teach the classes.
Lessons are based on training methods proven to be effective in changing behaviors. These include:
Over the past quarter-century, Safety City has taught thousands of kids how to prevent injuries, the leading cause of childhood death. Ask anyone who attended as a child, and you can count on them recalling an experience they will always remember.