Kristy Duristch

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH:

I have lived and or worked in Middletown for over 30 years. This is a picture of a program that I hold dear, from the Safety Council and Middletown Police Department program Safety Town. It's a picture of Mike Davis, who was the officer that ran it for 26 of its 46 years. So it's a picture of him talking to the incoming kindergarteners about bike safety and traffic safety using the infamous Mike the Bike.

Safety Town has been around since 1978. As the director of the Safety Council, I'm very proud of this program. We have planted the seed of safety in thousands of kids since we started, and we know it has made a difference. It teaches them to be aware of their surroundings. We've had a couple instances where they knew their names, their addresses, their phone numbers in an emergency situation, and the hospital personnel said, ‘How do you guys all know this?’ And they said, “We went to Safety Town.’

There's so much history in this city, and it's fun to listen to people in the history of our city, and sometimes it's frustrating because there's more of an influx of people coming and going that don't necessarily know that history, or respect the history, or even care about the history. But I think it's important, and I think people are important, and that's what I think of Middie Pride, is the people.