Rotary Club of Kissimmee donates dictionaries to area elementary schools

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Rotary Club of Kissimmee donates dictionaries to area elementary schools

Around Osceola

Wednesday, 15 December 2010 00:00

By Brian McBride
Associate Editor
More than 2,000 bicycle helmets are going to be available to elementary school children in need of one through a community partnership.
Community Vision donated $5,000 to the Kissimmee Police Department for the helmets that will be distributed to three local schools – Thacker Avenue Elementary, Flora Ridge Elementary and Central Avenue elementary schools.
“They have the most bike riders that we have noticed,” Kissimmee Police Department spokeswoman Stacie Miller said.
It’s part of a bicycle safety program that will kickoff sometime in January.
“There’s going to be 2,200 helmets,” Miller said.
KPD officials also will visit the schools to instruct about bicycle safety, including the proper way to wear a bike helmet. Currently, children under 16 must wear a helmet when riding a bicycle.
“That’s something we try to preach to them,” Miller said.
Community Vision is a community-based organization committed to the protection and preservation of Osceola County’s natural resources, effective growth management efforts and the education and training of the county’s residents.
According to a National Safe Kids Campaign 2004 study, it was estimated that more than 70 percent of children ages 5 to 14 (27.7 million) ride bicycles.
Bicycles were associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except the automobile. In 2001, 134 children ages 14 and under died and nearly 314,600 were injured in bicycle crashes. Head injury was the leading cause of wheeled sports-related death and the most important determinant of permanent disability after a crash, the report stated. Head injuries accounted for more than 60 percent of bicycle-related deaths, more than two-thirds of bicycle-related hospital admissions and about one-third of hospital emergency room visits for bicycling injuries.
Without proper protection, the report stated, a fall of as little as two feet can result in a skull fracture or other traumatic brain injury.
Helmets can avert the serious consequences of a seemingly typical childhood incident such as falling from a bike. When worn correctly and consistently, helmets were very effective at reducing the risk of bicycle-related death and injury and the severity of head injury when a crash occurs.
Helmets also had been shown to reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85 percent and the risk of brain injury by as much as 88 percent, the report stated.