Union County Safety Fun Fair Returns to Union County
By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Tuesday, April 25th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – (Information provided by ODOT Transportation Safety Coordinator, Billie-Jo Nickens) The annual Safety Fun Fair returned to Union County last week after a pause from 2020 – 2022 due to COVID-19 restrictions! Because the committee had to take those years off, 2023 marked the 17th year of the safety fair instead of the 19th consecutive year, but that didn’t keep the planning committee from pulling out all the stops!
Union County Safe Kids, a subcommittee of the Union County Safe Communities Coalition, worked with all county schools, local private schools, and homeschool families to invite and host 933 kindergarten through third graders to attend the fair on April 18th and 19th. The fair was held at the Blue Mountain Conference Center in La Grande and featured presentations on dog safety, water safety, electric safety, bicycle safety, seatbelt safety, and medicine safety. Each student who attended received a goody bag with materials from a variety of community partners and even students who could not attend in person due to scheduling conflicts, received these bags! In total, the committee distributed just under 1,200 goody bags to students in Union County! Students also had the opportunity to high five several mascots who were there to greet them off the bus and escort them back out of the building at the conclusion of the event. Smokey Bear, Sparky the Fire Dog, Vince and Larry Crash Test Dummies, McGruff the Crime Dog, Sam the Safety Cone, Buckle Up Bear, LED Lucy, and Solar Sam were all in attendance throughout the two days!
An event of this magnitude could not be pulled off without our event sponsors, presenters, and volunteers. Billie-Jo Nickens, Transportation Safety Coordinator with ODOT and Safety Fair Coordinator would like to thank the Center for Human Development, Inc. and the Union County Safe Communities Coalition for their generous sponsorships. In addition to our sponsors, a huge thank you goes out to our presenters: Union County District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel and K9 Blossom, Oregon Trail Electric Co-Op staff, Union County Sheriff’s Office, Union County Juvenile Department, La Grande Police Department, City of La Grande Safe Routes to School, City of La Grande Parks and Recreation, and the Oregon State Police. Finally… our volunteers make this event run smoothly each and every year! A huge thank you to our volunteers from DHS, CHD, the American Red Cross, NEON, Umatilla Public Health, Union County CARE, Elkhorn Media Group, EOU Athletics, and volunteers Wally Waller, Rebecca Craigmile, and Andie-Jo Craigmile!
Lastly, I want to give an extra shout out to volunteer, planning committee member, and past presenter, Heather Stanhope with the American Red Cross as this was her last Safety Fair. Heather has been a part of this fair for well over a decade… and maybe even each and every one since the beginning! Heather shows up for meetings, gathers materials for goody bags, helps stuff bags, helps recruit volunteers along each step of the way, volunteers herself for whatever is needed at the event, and always takes care of our recycling! She is even a very skilled trailer backer upper! Enjoy your retirement (again!) Heather, and thank you for your many years of service!
