By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Ben Rippey can legitimately say he spent last summer painting the town red … and white … and a little blue and gray.
As his Eagle Scout project, Ben decided to spruce up Bowling Green’s Safety Town, the miniature community on the grounds of Kenwood Elementary School, where children learn about traffic safety.
Dotting the small streets and sidewalks are a series of buildings meant to look like stores and safety services.
Ben, a senior at Bowling Green High School and member of Conneaut Boy Scout Troop 422, initially signed up to replace one of the buildings in Safety Town. But he found that several of the buildings had suffered water damage over the years.
“They were pretty structurally sound,” except for areas damaged by water, he said.
So Ben, joined by other Scouts he enlisted to help with the project, replaced rotten wood on the buildings and repainted the exteriors, using stencils to sketch vehicles housed in some of the buildings.
Sporting fresh coats of paint are the auto shop and gas station, pizza shop, police station, fire station, hospital, a barn, and two picnic tables. Bowling Green firefighters maintain the fire station at Safety Town. And the Parks and Recreation Department repainted the street lines on the pavement.
“I’m proud of the work we did,” said Ben, son of Ted and Karen Rippey.
But Ben didn’t stop there. He spotted other items at Safety Town that he decided he could make safer.
He sanded rust off street sign bases and filled them with concrete. Then he replaced the rusting metal street signs with new brightly painted wooden signs, alerting children on tricycles to railroad tracks, a deer crossing, nearby fire station, a pedestrian crossing, and slow moving tractors.
“They were in pretty sorry shape,” his mom said.
As Ben noticed more that needed to be done, the Eagle Scout project became very labor intensive. Ben and his Scout buddies started the project on Memorial Day weekend last year and finished up in mid-July. This will be the first summer children will be pedaling around the refurbished Safety Town.
“He didn’t want to stop until it was finished,” Karen Rippey said.
Because Ben has a summer job lifeguarding at the city pool, he had to squeeze the Safety Town updates around his pool hours.
“It was lots of late nights and early mornings,” he recalled.
Ben’s first memory of Safety Town was as an elementary student. Like many 5- and 6-year-olds in Bowling Green, he learned rules about safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists in the miniature city.
“I remember riding the little tricycles around the town,” learning traffic laws and what to do at the fully functioning stop light in Safety Town, Ben said.
Later he served as a Safety Town volunteer – serving up snacks, handing out coloring pages, and staffing the gas station. “When the kids pulled in with their tricycles, we pretended to fill them up with gas.”
This is not Ben’s first stint at volunteer work – having offered his time at Wintergarden Park and the Brown Bag Food Project. He also competes on the BGHS track team, plus enjoys hiking, backpacking and bicycling. Ben has been out to Philmont Scout Camp in New Mexico twice with his troop.
Ben and others in his troop will be headed back to Philmont this summer to help build a trail.
“Scouting has been a huge part of his life,” his mom said. “We’re really thankful to the Scout troop for what they’ve provided for these boys in terms of community and learning commitment.”
After graduating from BGHS, Ben has plans to study exercise science.
Safety Town is a Bowling Green Parks and Recreation program that runs during the summer months of June and July. The program lasts two weeks and covers topics ranging from washing hands to traffic safety. The Bowling Green Police Division is involved throughout the program and works with the participants on topics such as Stranger Danger.
Participants also take field trips and go on a tour of the BGPD. An Advanced Safety Town course is also available for Bowling Green area youth. This is a one-week program that builds on the skills gained in Safety Town and focuses on bike safety.
Those who are interested should contact the Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Department.
