OL Presentation May 25, 2012 at Paredes Middle School, Austin

I rustled up an OL presentation opportunity at Paredes Middle School this afternoon by calling persistently until I found a helpful and interested person, Debbie Sanders.  Went down with my railroad crossing sign as a prop and a thumb drive with two different OL presentations, both drawn from the standard menu of Powerpoint pictures.  I alternated the different presentations with various classes.  The staff brought in students that were on their study session breaks to the library, where I used a school projector and computer to present.  I was able to do four presentations for a total of 99 students, so I would count that as a very successful afternoon.  And Debbie indicated they might ask me to come back in the new school year to do some more, so that would be a great long-term opportunity.  Paredes Middle School is south of Slaughter Lane, west of IH-35 by about a mile or so.  The students were 12-14 years old, a great age to reach them with railroad safety info since they will be driving in the not-too-distant future.  Here are several photos that Debbie took during one of my presentations:

Yesterday I arranged another OL opportunity for the Kids R Kids Academy Child Safety and Protection Festival this coming July 14 in northern Austin.  I did it last July or August so this is a repeat.  I will be doing OL presentations along with a motorcar static display so that will draw interested persons in.  Of course, the presentations will be to a maximum of four or five persons at a time so its hard to build up high numbers like you can with presentations in a school but we do our best no matter what.

And I will similarly be doing a motorcar static display and OL presentations at the San Angelo Railroad Museum Hobo Days event this June 10 in San Angelo.  Although that's not in the Capital Metro service area, where I focus my efforts, we think it will help us generate good will toward RPI in the railroad community and that is priceless.

RPI Takes Operation Lifesaver Presentation to Kingsland, TX

Cassandra Chambliss, den leader of Cub Scout Pack #303 in Kingsland, TX, saw our motorcars while stopped in front of the Junction House Restaurant at the Antlers Hotel complex in Kingsland.  I told her I do Operation Lifesaver (OL) presentations and she asked me put one on for her Pack at an opportune time.  I agreed and we settled on Monday evening, April 23, 2012, inside the Junction House Restaurant.  The Antlers used to be a major stop on the Llano Branch (100 years ago).  RPI motorcars run past the restaurant each time we do a work session or other run on the Llano Branch.

I gave the OL presentation to 15 Cub Scouts (and siblings) and 15 adults, mainly parents.  After the presentation I gave the Scouts a tour of my Woodings CBI motorcar and the RPI rail-mower, both of which I had brought up on my 16-foot trailer for display at Cassandra's request.  I think they had fun checking them out and hope the visual association will help cement the rail safety lessons in their mind.  I also enjoyed chatting with Jeremy and Christina Lee, the owners of the Junction House restaurant, about the historic restaurant building (it's the house that starred in the horror flick "Texas Chain Saw Massacre").

A bunch of photos (credit to Cassandra Chambliss) follows.

RPI Supports Cap Metro at Dove Springs into Wellness Community Health Fair

Per Capital Metro authorization and on behalf of Cap Metro volunteer support group Railroad Partners, Inc. (RPI), I represented Capital Metro at the 2012 Dove Springs into Wellness Community Health Fair at Consuelo Mendez Middle School, Austin, TX, on Saturday, Feb. 25, by providing a table display of Cap Metro bus and railroad materials, plus Operation Lifesaver literature and giveaways for the kids.  The event was held inside the school gymnasium and had approximately 600-700 attendees.  I made contact with and provided items to approximately 150 parents and children, using Spanish about 75% of the time.  This was the most Spanish-intensive event I have worked so it was fortunate I speak Spanish.  I spent about 11 hours on this activity since Cap Metro called me into Austin twice before the event to pick up the latest materials they wanted distributed at the fair.  Here's a photo:

Plus, at the end of the health fair the sponsors handed out certificates of appreciation.  While being called a "Better World Hero" might be a little over the top, it was nice to see our efforts were appreciated:

This event was a major one in UT's "The 2012 Project", one in a series of annual days of volunteer labor by UT students in a local community.  This year's project focused on Dove Springs in southeast Austin (south of Lady Bird aka Town Lake), so UT students were doing other work in the community, such as picking up trash and fixing up homes, etc., that same day.  All in all it was great for RPI to be able to play a helpful role in this much bigger effort.

Photos from Dec. 8 OL Presentation

Here are three photos from my Dec. 8 Operation Lifesaver presentation at the Kids R Kids Learning Center in north Austin.  I presented to one class of 10 very young kids and another after-school program with 90 kids (that presentation shown above).  Note the dates in the photos are incorrect.

Dec. 8, 2011 OL Presentations at Kids R Kids Learning Academy, Cedar Park, TX

I was invited back to the Kids R Kids Learning Academy today to give two Operation Lifesaver presentations.  I had previously brought a motorcar to the July 8 Child Safety Fair at that location so they became acquainted with RPI and our OL activities.  I wore one of the new RPI hats and brought in a railroad crossing warning bell and a railroad crossing sign as visual aids.  I gave one presentation to 10 pre-schoolers using my laminated posters and the other to about 90 kids between 4-12 years old using the Powerpoint program.  Both went very well.  The kids really enjoyed the presentations, particularly when I whacked the bell with a large bolt to produce the warning tones.  That got their full attention in a hurry.  The Kids R Kids staffer, Sugandha Jain, expressed her appreciation for the presentations and brought me in to meet the Academy's owner.  She took at least 20-30 photos and I asked her to e-mail me some.  Will post them here when I get them.  Any day we can reach 100 kids and a number of adults is a great day for OL work.

I wished we could have had some Cub Scout work this past November and December, but it just didn't seem to work out.  Will keep up my efforts to arrange those presentations but it probably won't be possible until after tax season ends in mid-April next year.

Cub Scout OL Activities Coming Up

Received an e-mail the other day from my the Cub Scout after-school program coordinator for the Austin ISD, responding to my offer to provide Operation Lifesaver (OL) presentations this fall semester, as I have done in previous years.  She asked if I would be available to do presentations in November.  I responded "but of course" and asked her to develop a schedule.  I plan to provide one presentation per week.  I previously have brought motorcars to presentations, but am going to forego that for this series.  It's a real time-consuming to load the motorcar, trailer it down to Austin, unload it at the school, show it off to the kids, and then re-load it, bring it home and off-load it.  Instead I will bring in a railroad crossing sign I have and a warning bell and use them as my audiovisual props.  Here's a photo of the crossing sign:

This gives us a chance to continue working on OL activities within the Capital Metro service area, which is an important contribution to RPI's overall relationship with Capital Metro.

August 13 Austin ISD Back to School Bash

Alissa Schram, Capital Metro Community Involvement Coordinator, and I handed out Capital Metro and Operation Lifesaver materials at the Austin ISD "Back to School Bash" on Saturday, August 13, from 9:00-12:00 noon.  The "Bash" is a major community event at which children's backpacks, bike helmets and other stuff is given away while up to 40 or 50 community organizations hand out educational materials on particular topics.  Our table handed out piggybanks that look like MetroRail trainsets (some 500 of them, until we ran out).  We also had a lot of different Capital Metro pamphlets and rail safety items, including refrigerator magnets, rulers, activity books, book covers, etc.  I would estimate we probably had at least 750 folks come by our table.  I brought my Railroad Crossing sign so that helped attract folks.  I took home whatever was left over so we have more material for future safety fairs.  Best of all, the Bash was indoors, with air-conditioning.  I participated in this event on behalf of Railroad Partners, Inc. (RPI), a rail corridor preservation group (see railroadpartners.com) which supports rail safety in all railroad corridors.

Here's some photos: