Buns said that when he followed up, he discovered that the school is specifically for low-income families, and that explained a lot.
“The principal told us that the families had the choice of buying food, utilities or car seats,” he said, “and food and utilities come first.”
Vehicle crashes remain the number one killer of children ages 3-14 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A CDC study found that in one year, more than 618,000 children ages 12 and under rode in vehicles without the use of a child safety seat, booster seat or a seat belt at least some of the time. The agency says placing children in age- and size-appropriate car seats and booster seats reduces serious and fatal injuries by more than half.
Because part of a police department’s responsibility to its citizens is protection, the HPD took the attitude of “education before enforcement,” Buns said, and started giving parents warnings, saying that the next time they were driving their small children without car seats, they could get a $200 ticket.
Buns said that a few days after his visit to the Early Learning Center, he had an unrelated meeting at ThyssenKrupp Bilstein, a local company of about 300 employees that makes premium shock absorbers.
Buns ended up with a $1,500 donation from the company’s “Built 2 Give Back” initiative, which it had started in April to encourage employee participation in community service and fundraising efforts.
The “Built 2 Give Back” team’s efforts have included adopting the roadway of Bilstein Boulevard, recently re-named from Berk Boulevard, to pick up litter, conducting food drives and merchandise drives to help disaster victims and a pet adoption drive, and volunteering for Big Brothers Big Sisters and Serve City.
“When I heard they were going to buy car seats,” said “Built 2 Give Back” team member Rich Guerin, “I realized my wife is a plant manager for Evenflo, I thought we should be able to take that money and make it go further. So I sent her an email.”
Evenflo is one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of car seats for children with facilities in Miamisburg and Piqua, so as a result of Guerin’s reaching out to his wife Robin Guerin, the company agreed to sell the Hamilton Police Department the car seats at cost, meaning the HPD funds could go three or four times as far, said David P. Klafter, ThyssenKrupp’s quality manager.
Buns said that once word got out that the HPD was starting a free car seat program, people started stepping forward with additional donations, and one woman even brought a brand new car seat to the station. Other support has come from the U.S. Savings Bank and the Hamilton Community Foundation.
Furthermore, when the Hamilton YMCA heard about the initiative, it offered to make car seats available in its pre-school programs for families that need one.
“That is what community partnerships do,” Buns said. “Instead of this just being the head start at Grant School, we’re able to turn this city-wide. So now we have the funding and we’re going to be able to take care of a lot of kids.”
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