Meijer Stores Renew $50,000 Grant to Cincinnati Children's Helmet Program
CINCINNATI -- Meijer Stores will renew its $50,000 grant to fund a community bicycle helmet program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The program promotes bicycle helmet safety for children in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area.
One of the main components of the program is to teach children 5 to 9 years of age the importance of bicycle safety and helmet use through six hands-on lessons. Teaching helmet safety in schools and communities can greatly decrease the number of bicycle-related injuries and deaths. Children who do not practice correct safety skills or who don't follow traffic rules are most likely to be injured while riding a bicycle, scooter, skateboard or inline skates.
Last year, the Meijer grant made it possible for the helmet safety program to be taught in 12 schools, reaching more than 2,400 kids. This year, the program will expand to 25 schools.
The statistics for bicycle-related injuries are alarming. In 2000, a total of 1,020 children were treated at Cincinnati Children's for bike-related injuries. Of these, only 8 percent were wearing a helmet. There were 928 children treated and released from the emergency department, while 92 children were injured severely enough to require hospitalization. Fifty-eight of those requiring admission (63 percent) reportedly were not wearing a helmet.
"Helmets save lives and protect against serious head injuries. Wearing a helmet is such a simple thing to do, but so few kids are doing it," says Rebeccah Brown, M.D., assistant director of Trauma Services at Cincinnati Children's. "We would see fewer head injuries if kids would wear helmets. The partnership with Meijer and Coca-Cola helps get this important message out."
Bicycle helmets have been shown to reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85 percent and the risk of brain injury by as much as 88 percent. Head injury is the leading cause of death in bike crashes. Eighty-four percent of the bike-related head injuries in 2000 were from children not wearing a helmet at the time of their collision.
"We are proud to continue our sponsorship of Cincinnati Children's Bicycle Helmet Safety Program," says Rick Keyes, vice president and market director of Cincinnati Meijer Stores. "Last year, we made a lot of progress in getting this program to its current level of success. This year's $50,000 grant will propel us to the next level. Everyone who has been part of this program has done a marvelous job and we look forward to saving more young lives in 2002."
Meijer Stores has a strong corporate commitment to community involvement. It believes in being "A part of your neighborhood. A part of your life." This sense of community has led Meijer to spend millions of dollars each year helping others. Meijer Stores, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has more than 140 stores in Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
Contact Information
Amy Caruso (
amy.caruso@chmcc.org) 513-636-5637
