Cape May Elementary Hosts Officer Phil Program

CAPE MAY – Creative Safety Products is proud to present their 2016-2017 Officer Phil Program to Cape May City Elementary School. The Officer Phil Program’s topics this year are Respect, Bullying, and Stranger Awareness. With 41 years of experience and over one million students taught, we have learned that along with a little fun, like incorporating magic tricks and jokes into the educational lessons, comes a lot of learning! The students will enjoy a 30-minute safety assembly and get to meet Police Officers from the Cape May Police Department, as well as Officer Phil’s pal Lucky the Duck, who will join the performer to help teach the students some of the lessons.
One of the primary objectives of the Officer Phil Program is to help the Cape May Police Department establish a positive relationship with the youth in the community. It is very important for the children to know that the officers are friendly, approachable, and always available to help the children and their families, when in need. The program will begin with an introduction of the Cape May Police Officers in attendance.
The first lesson of our program is Respect. Officer Phil wants all the children in his “Safety Squad” to see his “bucket of respect”.  The bucket gets filled every day by showing respect to others and following safety rules.  The children will come up with ways that they are going to show respect for others. The bucket starts out empty, but when the children start “tossing” ideas into the bucket, bright foam stars magically appear in the bucket. The take away from this magic lesson is that if you want others to respect you than you need to show respect also.  The children are reminded to respect yourself, others, and the school rules, which in turn will help to fill your bucket of respect every day. 
The next lesson is Bullying. The performer will use three colored balls to talk about the different aspects of bullying. The Green ball will represent what does and does not constitute bullying.  The Yellow ball will represent caution.  The children are reminded to be careful when they are on the internet. Cyber Bullying can happen to anyone that is on the internet if they are not cautious. The Red ball reminds them of the word stop.  If someone is bullying them, they should ask the bully to stop, and tell an adult. The takeaway here is that we can stop bullying by being a buddy, being cautious and working together.
The final lesson is Stranger Awareness. The performer will use our Magic Drawing Board, which is a favorite of the children.  The face on the whiteboard comes to life with the help of our performer. When a child finds themselves in an unsafe situation, they are often asked to describe the person that caused the concern.  Through the use of the drawing board, our performer will ask for a description of a made-up stranger.  The children giggle when the “stranger” starts moving his eyes and talks to them.  This is a great illustration to get the message across to the children that the details are important in identifying a stranger. We once had children escape a potential abduction situation, and because of our show and our lesson on Stranger Awareness, they were able to describe to police in full detail, exactly what the suspect looked like. 
At the end of the assembly, the children will all receive a hands-on activity book to work on at home with their family, to reinforce the lessons taught at the program.  There are also online resources that will give teachers and parents some tools to review the safety messages. 
Creative Safety Products and the Cape May Police Department would like to thank all of the participating businesses in the community who made the program possible.