Safety and prevention were the key words when Renee Schwenn, a community educator for Children’s Hospital, visited Lakeville Elementary students yesterday.
Schwenn spoke with students about bicycle and pedestrian safety ? valuable information for kids to have as the weather warms up.
She illustrated the importance of wearing a bicycle helmet by reciting the classic nursery ryhme of ‘Jack and Jill,? except in her version the characters were eggs.
With a mini blue bicycle helmet strapped to it, the ‘Jill? egg survived her fall just fine. However, the helmet-less ‘Jack? egg was not so lucky and ended up scrambled.
The demonstration showed how bike helmets protect riders heads, specifically their brains, which control the body’s ability to do things like walk, run, talk, etc.
‘You guys fall off your bike once, not wearing a helmet, you could lose one of those abilities,? Schwenn said. ‘You could forget how to walk or talk, which means you’ve got to re-learn it all over again.?
More importantly, Schwenn said the brain tells the heart to beat and the lungs to breathe.
‘If we hit our brain hard enough, our body may forget how to do those things and then we couldn’t live,? she said. ‘So that’s why it’s so important we wear our helmets.
As for pedestrian safety, Schwenn reminded students to ‘look left, right, then left again? before crossing the street, not just ‘both ways.?
She told students to always walk when crossing the street, even when riding a bike, because running or riding across could cause you to fall and injure yourself in the middle of the road.
Schwenn also reminded students to only cross with adults your parents say are okay or others like crossing guards or police officers. Never cross the street with strangers.