North Shore volunteers help
to make the community safe

THE NORTH Shore Safety Council (NSSC) has been help-

ing people play it safe locally since 1954.

The council is the driving force
behind the successful Elmer the
Safety Elephant program for
children, and covers the communi-
ty elsewhere with mall displays,
industrial safety seminars, and a
pedestrian safety for seniors pro-
gram.

*‘Our mandate is the promotion
of safety generally on the North
Shore, and is based on the limita-
tions of what we can do with an
organization which is almost en-
tirely volunteer supported,’’ said
NSSC president Stuart Lawson.

Under the stewardship
of teacher Judy
N4cDonald, the Elmer .
program spread the
good word on safety,
including cycling safety,
to close to 6,000
preschool, kindergarten
and Grade 1 children on
the North Shore over
the past year.

The volunteers represent a broad
cross-section of the community,

including local municipal staff, fire

and police departments. .

Included on the 1!J]-member
council board of directors are
Dorothy Myers, from the North
Shore Union Board of Health,
Lions Gate Hospital safety man-
ager Rich Beard-Gould, and Jeff
Jetferd, ‘coordinator of the North
and West Vancouver Emergency
Program.  —

The three North Shore mayors
rank honorary’ membership. The
council receives additional backing
from a group of consultant direc-
tors.

MICHAEL BECKER !
News Reporter

The council operated on an in-
come of 310,156 this year, with
$7,000 coming in the form of a
B.C. government grant, $500 from
West Vancouver, $1,100 from
North Vancouver District, $950
from North Vancouver City and
just over $600 from other sources.

The organization is built on vol-
untary effort with the only paid
staff being the council secretary
and the teacher working the Elmer
program.

The heart of the local NSSC ef-
fort is as big as an elephant.

Under the stewardship of teach-
er Judy McDonald, the Elmer
program spread the good word on
safety, including cycling safety, to
close to 6,000 preschool,
kindergarten and Grade | children
on the North Shore over the past
year.

“We've also been getting into
pedestrian safety for seniors and
used the Vancouver safety council
instructor for our program this

- year,’’ said Lawson.

Beginning in the spring, the
safety council will be presenting a
two-hour seminar program for new
teen drivers. ‘‘We’ll be starting it
at Sutherland and if it goes well we
hope to spread it to the other
North Shore schools. Hopefully
some of these kids will realize what
happens when a car moves down
the road. I don't think some of the
parents even know,” he said.

Lawson developed the program

-over the past year.

The council also has an in-
dustrial safety wing which in the
past has put on seminars on
workplace safety for North Shore
industries.

Lawson has been council presi-

B

STUART LAWSON,
Elmer, Ruff, and Judy
McDonald are active
members of the North Shore
Safety Council. Lawson is
the council’s president.
McDonald has introduced
safety consciousness via
Elmer and Ruff to close to
6,000 children during the
past year. Running on a
shoe-string budget, the safe-
ty council offers safety pre-
grams to various segments
of the community’.

dent since 1983. He works for B.C.
Transit as the superintendent for
Surrey.

He became involved in the Van-
couver Safety Council while work-
ing as an accident prevention of-
ficer and instructor for the B.C.
Transit safety section from '977 to
1981.

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PAGE 52

NEWS photo Nelt Lucente