Our History

Our History

For generations of children, Safety Town has made learning how to stay safe feel less like a lesson and more like an adventure. With child-sized streets, miniature buildings, traffic signs, crosswalks, and hands-on activities, the program gives young children a safe place to practice navigating situations they may encounter at home, at school, and throughout their community.

The story of Safety Town began in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1937. After a child was struck and killed by a car while walking to school, Police Officer Frend Boals helped create a miniature town where children could learn and practice basic traffic-safety skills. The idea demonstrated something that remains at the heart of Safety Town today: young children learn best when they are given opportunities to see, experience, and practice important lessons for themselves.

In 1964, Ohio nursery school teacher Dorothy Chlad expanded the concept into a comprehensive early-childhood safety program. Her approach went beyond traffic rules to introduce young children to a wider range of safety awareness and accident-prevention skills. She also founded the National Safety Town Center to promote preschool and early-childhood safety education and help communities establish programs of their own. The Center became a nonprofit volunteer organization in 1974, and the Safety Town model eventually inspired programs across the United States and beyond.

Safety Town came to West Deptford in 1993 through the vision and determination of Karen Bagnell. Before moving to West Deptford, Karen’s own children had participated in a Safety Town program in the Midwest. Having seen firsthand how valuable and memorable the experience could be, she wanted children in her new community to have the same opportunity. With the support of the West Deptford Junior Women’s Club and West Deptford Township, Karen helped establish West Deptford Safety Town.

Since then, the program has become a treasured West Deptford tradition and a meaningful rite of passage for generations of children preparing to enter kindergarten. Each summer, approximately 60 to 120 young residents participate in lessons designed to help them become safer and more confident at home, on the road, at school, and in the community. Classroom instruction is brought to life in a miniature town, where children can practice skills such as crossing a street, recognizing traffic signs, and responding safely to everyday situations.

Although the world around our children has changed since 1993, the heart of the program has remained remarkably consistent. Lessons have continued to address essential topics such as pedestrian and bicycle safety, fire prevention, water safety, poison and medicine safety, interactions with strangers and animals, playground safety, and emergency awareness. Cyber safety was later added to help children begin building safe habits in an increasingly digital world.

The program paused during the summer of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but its return carried on a tradition that has now endured for more than three decades. West Deptford Safety Town is widely recognized as South Jersey’s only long-running community program of its kind. Within West Deptford, it holds a special and prestigious place as a program that children look forward to attending and adults fondly remember from their own childhoods.

Much of that longevity is owed to the people who refused to let the program disappear. Best friends Kathleen Casazza and Patti Jarrell devoted years of care, energy, and leadership to keeping West Deptford Safety Town afloat. Their dedication helped guide the program through changing times while preserving the traditions that made it so meaningful. Following Patti’s passing in 2022, Kathleen continued to support the program and the mission they shared. Their friendship and commitment are woven permanently into the history of West Deptford Safety Town.

The program also depends on the enthusiasm of approximately 30 to 60 teenage volunteers each summer. Many assist younger children as they move through the miniature town and participate in daily lessons. Their involvement has made Safety Town a place where generations come together: teenagers learn responsibility and leadership while helping the community’s newest students gain confidence of their own.

West Deptford Safety Town is sustained almost entirely through community donations and the generosity of local organizations, public-safety professionals, volunteers, families, and neighbors. That community support has allowed the program to continue serving West Deptford children while remaining rooted in the same purpose that inspired its creation: giving young children the knowledge, practice, and confidence they need to make safer choices.

More than thirty years after its first class, West Deptford Safety Town remains much more than a summer program. It is a beloved community tradition, a partnership built through service, and a place filled with memories. Former students return as teenage volunteers, volunteers grow into parents, and a new group of children arrives each summer ready to explore the little town built especially for them.

The buildings may be miniature, but the lessons—and the community behind them—have always been larger than life.