SCHENEVUS _ Registered nurse Coleen Vesely said she takes a model brain to schools when talking to students about the importance of helmets and bicycling.
Some pupils say the model looks ``cool,'' but others turn their heads away, she said Tuesday. The older students want to touch the model, said Vesely, who works at Bassett Healthcare and is a coordinator for Safe Kids of Otsego County.
Vesely visited Schenevus Central School on Tuesday with Bassett and Safe Kids community educator Rich McCaffery to promote bicycle safety and helmets. Vesely said she discusses how brain injuries can be debilitating.
In New York state, children younger than 14 are required by law to wear a helmet at all times while riding a bicycle. Vesely said authorities can issue tickets to parents when children don't wear helmets, and two Schenevus students said they were stopped and warned by state police to do so.
Students tell her they don't wear helmets because they don't fit or part of the helmet is broken, Vesely said, and students also mimic their parents in thinking a helmet is unnecessary.
About 1 percent of students asked say they don't wear a helmet because they don't have one, Vesely said. The Bassett Healthcare speakers gave teachers materials about the helmet law, bicycle safety and other data.
The Schenevus program was presented in conjunction with the state Safe Routes to School program, according to Superintendent Lynda Bookhard. She said in an e-mail message that the school is eager to encourage students to walk or ride bicycles to school.
Sidewalks in and around the school will be installed this summer, Bookhard said.
The town of Maryland, which includes Schenevus, was one of four area communities to be awarded grants through Safe Routes to School, part of the state Department of Transportation. Of nearly $500,000 in grants announced last autumn, $70,000 went to Maryland for pedestrian improvements on Main Street; $186,115 to the village of Sidney for pedestrian safety improvements; $93,881 to the village of Afton for sidewalk improvements; and $138,000 to the village of Sherburne for sidewalk installation.
Barbara Thomas, Region 9 coordinator for the program, said the area projects are in the design stage, a process that could take up to two years. The projects must be completed within five years, she said Tuesday.
Goals include safer routes for children walking and biking to school, thus encouraging healthier lifestyles, Thomas said. The DOT funds also will help schools and other local agencies implement transportation projects that improve safety while reducing traffic, fuel consumption and air pollution near schools, officials said.
Safe Kids of Oneonta speakers have presented programs at about 10 schools this year. The organization works to prevent accidental childhood injury, which it said is the leading killer of children 14 and younger. Safe Kids Worldwide is a network of organizations, and Safe Kids of Otsego County was founded in 2000 and is led by Bassett Healthcare.
Vesely said Safe Kids will be applying to the governor's Traffic Safety Committee for funding to buy more helmets and educational materials.
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