With a focus on children, Helmet Your Head Bike Safety Awareness Day featured a bike rodeo obstacle course, information on head injuries, entertainment from a safety-themed band and free helmets for about 35 people in attendance.
Event coordinator Lucy Ranus, a nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, was among the volunteers and city workers working at the event.
Ranus said events like the Helmet Your Head Bike Safety Awareness Day are important because they teach kids about the dangers of not wearing a helmet when they are still young, which encourages them to retain the habit throughout their life.
“We want to not only teach kids how to protect their heads, but teach them how to ride safely too,” Ranus said, explaining the purpose of the event’s bike rodeo, in which kids rode through obstacles reminding them of how to properly stop at stop signs and how to look out for traffic.
Models of the brain and skull were on display for kids to see with helpful information including how injuries affect the brain, provided by workers from the Barrow Neurological Institute, one of the event’s sponsors.
Throughout the event, Safety Patrol, a group of city employees who sing about safety to kids, sung family-friendly, instructional rock-and-roll songs.
“Read and follow the roadway signs, like you know you should,” crooned the lead singer during the chorus of one of the songs.
Contact the reporter at ejfranco@asu.edu
