Playing for Safety

AN IDEA TO HELP struggling families in one neighborhood connect with community resources has quickly grown into the citywide Spokane Child Health and Safety Fair, set for Saturday.

There’s a lot out there that all parents need to be aware of to keep their children and themselves safe and healthy. That’s what Donna Odean, fair coordinator, learned as she talked with safety and health experts who encouraged her to spread the word about the fair to families everywhere.

The free event – to be held at the Plymouth Community Youth Center at Eighth Avenue and Walnut – will feature plenty of entertainment for children, including carnival-type games, face-painting, continuously running safety videos, martial arts demonstrations, dance presentations, magicians and free ice cream.

While the kids have fun, grownups will have plenty of opportunities to ask questions and pick up information on everything from gangs and drug problems to Internet safety, immunizations, nutrition programs and more.

“It has worked out so well with the community,” Odean said. “We just feel that it is important to reach out to the young people.”

With help from the city’s Community Oriented Policing Services programs, Spokane Regional Health District, police and fire personnel and several nonprofit organizations, the fair will cover a broad range of issues. O’Dean said she hopes the event will connect individuals in need with resources available in the community.

For example, there will be information about the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, the Women and Children Free Restaurant, crisis shelters for homeless families and teenagers, prenatal care and medical care.

There will be educational materials about early childhood development, adolescent health, immunizations, car seat safety, the importance of wearing helmets, suicide prevention, boating safety, the dangers of smoking and more.

Beyond social services, those who attend also can learn about preventing crime and avoiding becoming a victim, issues that organizers say affect everyone.

Marilyn Saunders, director of Spokane COPS, has a sobering message in terms of crime in the city: “Things are going to get worse before they get better,” she said. Identity theft is already at “epidemic” proportions, she said.

“We just want people to be sharp. Be on your toes. We just need to keep preaching to each other about being vigilant,” she said. Officers at the fair will remind people to be careful about when and where they give out personal information, such as over cell phones and the Internet.

Bob Cepeda, a Spokane crime prevention officer, will be talking about gangs.

“The gang problem has exploded,” Cepeda said. What’s important for residents throughout the city and county to know, he said, is that gangs are no longer just a problem within certain racial and/or socioeconomic communities. “They’re everywhere,” he said, adding that more girls are joining gangs.

While the fair isn’t just a crime prevention forum, Saunders hopes city residents will be inspired to do something in their own neighborhoods. She also hopes it will spark interest in the upcoming National Night Out on Aug. 3, a two-decade-old event designed to get neighbors to turn on their lights, head outside at night and meet one another.

Last year 137 neighborhoods in Spokane held block parties on National Night Out. This year, Saunders wants to break 200. To encourage that, her department is giving away neighborhood party baskets that include free engravers to the first 200 people to register their neighborhood party. The engravers can be used to mark personal property in case it gets stolen. Information about these baskets also will be available at Saturday’s fair.

There will be several actions families can take at the fair to make a difference. For starters they can create ID cards with help from volunteers from COPS S.W. and N.W. Children and adults who are at risk of getting lost, such as a person with Alzheimer’s disease, can have their photographs and fingerprints taken and digitally saved on a computer disk, said volunteer Beaudreau Hull. That way, if the person goes missing, family members can give the disk to police to aid in the search.

Families also can register their bicycles at the fair to improve the chances that the bikes will be recovered if stolen.

Hull said he hopes the fair will remind people that the COPS stations are a great resource for neighborhoods, providing a lot of information about crime trends in the area, prevention strategies and how to start a Block Watch program.

Odean admits the fair is tackling some hefty issues and said, “These problems are not going to disappear overnight.” But she said she hopes the fair will inspire people to work together and work with the agencies already in place.

Stunned by how quickly the fair grew from a neighborhood event to a citywide forum, she added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we do it again (next year).”