The Urbana Police Division has completed its second of two week-long sessions of Safety Town for youngsters getting ready to begin Kindergarten next fall. The police division first began providing Safety Town in 2012 and have conducted two classes every June except for 2020 due to COVID. For this year’s program 39 youngsters were able to enjoy the daily sessions where various safety topics were taught by Urbana officers and by guest presenters including:
-The Urbana Fire Division
-The Champaign County Sheriff’s Dog Warden
-Urbana City School’s Bus Transportation
-The 911 Countywide Dispatch Center
-Champaign County Jobs & Family Services
-The Champaign County Municipal Court’s Victim’s Services dog “Copper”
-The YMCA City Pool
Safety Topics covered included:
-Fire Safety
-Animal Safety
-Bus Safety
-How to place an emergency call
-Stranger Danger
-Good Touch v. Bad Touch
-Pool Safety
-Playground Safety
-Traffic Safety
-Bicycle Safety
-Pedestrian Safety
Urbana Police and City School’s Resource Officer AJ Ervin was responsible for the two-weeks of educating and entertaining the youngsters. He was assisted throughout the two weeks of classes by Sergeant Shawn Schmidt and Officers Sam Harris and Luke Hiltibran. Each week ended with a graduation ceremony for the children and their families. Jessica Ervin and Jennifer Hall-Heminger were also tremendous help to the police division in helping to make this year’s program very successful.
