Video: Scooter Town at Cook Elementary

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)-In the State of Mississippi you can receive your permit to drive at 15, but in Scooter Town you can get your licenses a little earlier.

WCBI goes to a town where students are using scooters to get around while learning rules of the road.

“Scooter town is so fun, why don’t you just check it out?” says Kinsely Hendricks.

Scooter Town comes once a year to the Cook Elementary gym where it is complete with streets, stop signals, and railroad crossings. Coach Amy Martin says it is a way to teach the children the importance of road safety whether you are in a car or riding a bike.

“We talk about, you know when you are on a bicycle on the road you have to obey the rules just like if you are in a car. And so we talk about following those traffic laws and we practice that in Scooter Town. You know stopping at the stop sign, looking both ways and of course we have a train track when the ghost train comes by they have to stop and look both ways,” says Coach Amy Martin.

Coach Amy’s inspiration comes from a childhood memory where she had a similar learning experience. After 17 years she is still finding ways to add something new each year to get keep the children’s attention.

“It started out as one little road, you know they were having such a great time you know riding down that road so I added a little something else to the next year and then I kept adding things each year and Scooter Town has just grown into you know, what you see now,” says Coach Amy.

The kids are the main focus but sometimes the parents can learn something as well.

“They can help their parents, reminding their parents about what to do and just being a kid and having fun,” says Coach Amy.

“Do you think you are going to be helping your mommy and daddy out when you get in the car now?”

Hmm.

“What kind of things are you going to tell them about the road?”

“I want to tell them, look if you see something like if its like a train sign you look, if a train is coming,” says Kinsely Hendricks.

Scooter town even has its own police force…

“I have been riding Scooter Town. I have been the police give people some tickets, and I have been on the train, I passed the train and I raced,” says Jeremiah Dumas.

As kids scoot around Scooter Town, they also learn safety rules for the road as well as getting their daily exercise.

“Fitness can be fun, they got a lot of exercise in today without really realizing it,” says Coach Amy.

It usually takes Coach Amy about 11 hours to set up Scoot Town for the children.

Categories: Local News

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