Upcoming Courses Teaches Grade-Schoolers About Safety

Children were invited to wander around a tiny replica of a city to learn lessons about safety.

The Temecula Sunrise Rotary is set to host a series of classes, called “Safety Town,” from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in two sessions at .

The first session will run from July 18 to 22, and the second will run from July 25 to 29.

For the address, .

Each course is a week long and teaches 5- to 8-year-olds various aspects of safety, according to Marti Treckman, a spokesperson for the event.

The Rotary club sets up a classroom to resemble a town, with streets, traffic lights, buildings and pedal cars. Various guest teachers, such as local law enforcement, come by to teach the classes, she said.

Children get lessons about safety, then are put in staged situations to practice their new skills. The curriculum includes lessons about strangers, streets, fire, bikes, water, poison, drugs, how to use 911, guns and disaster preparedness.

Great success stories came from the event, Treckman wrote in an email.

“Last year, at one of the graduations, a mother announced that her daughter had saved a boy from drowning the night before, after having had a session in water safety that day at Safety Town,” she said. “Members of the Rotary club were extremely happy to have been able to impact someone’s life so graphically.”

State Farm Insurance is the sole sponsor of the program.

The event is always popular, Treckman said. “Every year, local parents want to know, when is safety town and how can I register my child?”

The club is hosting the classes for the ninth year in a row. Early registration is recommended, since classes are already filling up, Treckman said.

Sunrise Rotary organizes several events for young children, including its sixth-annual literacy program at Temecula Elementary School, which just ended.

Last school year, the Rotarians sent six middle and six high school students to Rotary leadership camps and gave $8,000 scholarships to graduating seniors.

The club also holds an annual music competition.

Despite the number of clubs the Rotarians host, Safety Town is the most fun, Treckman said.

“Of all the projects Temecula Sunrise Rotary has for the youth in our community, Safety Town is easily the most important and the most rewarding,” she said.

To get registration information,