St. Patrick’s event a fun time to learn about seat belt helmet safety

Fairview Park Hospital and the Shepherd Center in Atlanta are teaming up to help promote the use of seat belts, bike helmets and other safety  during a St. Patrick’s Festival event on March 1.

The Schoolhouse Scuffle is being held at Southern Pines from 9 a.m. to noon. Liz Green, director of marketing and communications at Fairview Park Hospital, said the hospital is happy to partner with the Shepherd Center in Atlanta and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to promote seat belt awareness, seat belt safety and helmet safety.

“Living in rural Georgia, we have a lot of four-wheelers that are being ridden on paved and dirt roads,” Green said. “Of course we have a lot of people riding on bicycles, too, along with the main focus being on seat belt safety. Shepherd’s came to us as someone to partner in the community. Their goal is to drill down on raising awareness on that, because Laurens County definitely has some room for improvement when it comes to utilization of seat belts.” 

Emma Harrington, with Shepherd Center, said they received a big grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety a few years ago. They looked at the data to see which counties had the highest rate of injuries and fatalities on the roadways and the lowest rate of seat belt use. Laurens County popped up showing that there was room for improvement when it comes to seat belts.

“It has improved already because it has gone up from 79.9 percent to 82 percent,” Harrington said. “Things are looking up, but that’s why we picked Laurens County.” 

Harrington said they will also go over how to maintain a bicycle and go over the rules of the road for bicycles too. 

“It is all pushing toward what we call protective factors, so there is going to be something for everyone,” she said. “There will be something for teenagers, for parents of the new teen drivers and even for toddlers who are just getting on a bike.” 

Green said they will also partner with the Twiggs County Sheriff’s Office, who works well with the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office.

“They will be here with a lot of interactive opportunities for high-schoolers and anyone really,” Green said. “What they have is actually hands-on, and I would hate for the community to miss these resources. This way high schoolers can see the dangers of impaired driving that they might not know about. We’ll have something there where they can put on goggles and see how dangerous it is to drive impaired. We’ll also have seat belt safety so that they can see how vital it is to wear a seat belt and how dangerous it is if you do not use one.” 

The Twiggs sheriff’s office will bring its robot dog, which has been shown at many educational events. 

“Kids don’t get to see that here in Laurens County,” Green said. “It will grab the kids’ interest.” 

Toddlers who are just learning to ride a bicycle will be able to participate in a bike rodeo. Nick Anderson, with Georgia Safe Routes to Schools, will be at this event providing free helmet fittings.

“We will have some free helmets for our children who come out,” Green said. “There will be a bike course where they can put on their helmets and ride those bikes.”

The event will also be for the adults in the crowd.

“Seat belt safety and awareness applies to everyone,” Green said. “Everyone gets into a car at some point. Most people drive. We want to invite adults and senior citizens to come out because we can all benefit on a refresher on how important this is.”

The Shepherd Center will be offering an incentive of $2,500 to the high school who has the most attendance student wise and faculty wise.

“We’re really blessed that Shepherd is willing to invest into our community and is willing to partner with us in order to make this a success and get this education out to students ,” Green said. “This is something we’re hoping superintendents will support. We really hope that parents, faculty and parents will really encourage participation. There is an incentive for the school to use the money toward education opportunities and to get that money. It’s going to be a huge event.”

Fellowship of Christian Athletes will provide bicycles and Ronda Walker, with literacy in Laurens County, will also help with the event.

“We are thankful to our local partners who are always in when it comes to educating our community when it comes to safety and prevention and lifesaving measures,” Green said. 

There will be other vendors who will be at the event who will have a lot of information and swag to give out.

“Of course you’re coming for the education, but you are coming to interact with other partners in the community and leave with some really cool free stuff,” she said.