Hinsdale Safety Village Returns for 32nd Year

Safety Village is getting the miniature town ready for its 32nd year of teaching good safety practices to children.

Children entering kindergarten and first grade who live in Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills, or in Dist. 181 are invited to register an exciting program designed to instill lifetime safety habits.

Registration opens at 7 a.m. April 23 at the Hinsdale Police Dept., located at 19 E. Chicago Ave.

Safety Village is a Lilliputian town with 16 child-sized buildings, including a police and fire station, memorial building, school, church, burger stand, ice cream parlor, library, hospital and others. There is a real working railroad cross, lots of familiar signs, four working traffic lights all built to the scale of a small child.

Children delight in driving toy cars throughout the village and while practicing safety rules for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Lessons in fire, strangers, railroad, toy, playground and water (54 facets in all) are taught with the aid of songs, stories, robots, puppets, movies, crafts, live play characters as well as teachers, police and firefighters.  

The program teaches children to practice safety through simulated experiences with the hope they’ll remember what to do if they ever faced with a real emergency in the future. Children will have the same teachers for the entire two weeks of the program. Teachers guide children through more than 50 facets of safety lessons every five to fifteen minutes throughout each day. Also included is a snack and special character visitor each day. Safety Village was donated to the children of Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills by the Katie Satkamp Memorial Foundation, a 7-year-old girl who died in a fatal bus accident. Since its inception, Safety Village has taught more than 8,000 children the golden rules of safety.

The program runs for two weeks from June 16 to Thursday, June 26, Monday through Friday, rain or shine. Time slots are 8:30 to 10 a.m. and 10:15 to 11:45 a.m.  The fee for the two week program is $108 per child, which includes a T-shirt. Classes fill up fast so you don’t want to put off registering.

Registration forms are available online or at the Hinsdale police station at 19 E. Chicago Ave. Forms must be completed with checks payable to Safety Village, and mailed in a long envelope to: Safety Village of Hinsdale, 6230 Cove Creek Court, Burr Ridge, IL 60527.