Las Vegas family travels to Westlake for highly-regarded Safety Town program

Terri and Reginald Winter brought their son, Gavin, from Las Vegas to attend Westlake's Safety Town.
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When I graduated from North Olmsted High School in 1981, thoughts of the Safety Town program I attended back in the late 60s were far from my mind. That is until my husband, Reginald, and I, along with our then four-year-old son, Gavin, came back to Ohio from our home in Las Vegas for a visit last year. 

As we were removing items from our rental car to take into the home of a relative we were visiting in Lakewood, Gavin slipped out of the car, and crossed the street where we were parked. Reg and I were in a state of panic to see him across the street on a tree lawn, not knowing how he got over there, whether he looked both ways or if any traffic had been present. 

I shouted to my son, who then seemed startled. I feared he would again try and cross the street back to us, so I dashed into the street – into the path an oncoming but slow moving truck. The truck driver saw me and stopped, and I was able to get safely over to Gavin.

Shaken from the incident, I discussed with family members ways to educate Gavin and make an impact so that something like this would be unlikely to occur again. My sister, Joanne, suggested enrolling Gavin in a Safety Town program. I thought that was a great idea, and began searching for a local Safety Town program upon our return home to Las Vegas.

Numerous internet searches and countless inquiries to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Chamber of Commerce, the local school district and finally the National Safety Town Center, based in Cleveland, all returned the same answer – Las Vegas had no such program.

I began to stimulate interest in the program among my colleagues at work and others within my sphere of influence. The biggest hurdle was that in a city of 1.4 million people, getting the support of the Las Vegas police and fire departments, Clark County School Board, and non-profit organizations such as Kiwanis or Rotary Club was a difficult task. I knew from my research that the most beneficial time for children to attend Safety Town is the summer before they enter kindergarten... and Gavin's time was running out. 

So the only alternative was to find a city with a thriving, well-established Safety Town program for Gavin. I found our answer in Westlake. The champion of the Westlake's program is most certainly officer Anna Cavender. She has a tireless dedication to the education of the five-year-olds in her care. She monitors closely the integrity of the program and the message that the children are receiving.

Officer Anna is very credible with the children, who see her as an authority on the subjects of traffic safety, fire safety, gun safety, stranger danger, school bus safety and animal safety. They hang on her every word, and come up with question after question (like that age group usually does!) and they know they can believe her answers – after all she is a police woman, and she gets the bad guys! She also is well aware of common misinformation children pick up and she is able to set them straight, such as when she shows them the door to the jail, and tells them, “We never, ever put children in jail; nothing you can do would be so bad for a policeman to put you in jail.” Many kids are teased by parents or older children that the police will come and get them and put them in jail; our son had some fears relieved hearing it in person from Officer Anna. 

It was so well worth the trip, and Reg and I cannot say enough about the program in Westlake. Gavin learned so many new things that will serve him well as he goes off to kindergarten this year. We are grateful that he had the opportunity to complete this program, and we are looking forward to raising more awareness in Las Vegas, where hopefully a program can be established for the children there someday in the future.