CULLMAN – Cullman’s sixth annual radKIDS Summer Safety Camp, presented by the Cullman City Police Department and Cullman City Parks and Recreation, will be held June 27 – July 1 in the Cullman Civic Center auditorium. Registration is being taken on a first come, first served basis and costs a total of $7 for the full 5-day safety camp designed specifically for boys and girls in grades 1-5.
Early registration is strongly recommended. Forms are available at the Civic Center or can be emailed or faxed to parents. The camp will meet from 9-11 a.m. each day and the curriculum will cover topics including bullying, gun safety, escaping a home fire, internet safety and identifying inappropriate touching. The deadline for registration is June 24.
The 'rad' in radKIDs stands for 'resisting aggression defensively.'
According to the radKIDS website, “radKIDS does not tell your child what we hope they will do, we actually teach, train and empower children with real skills so they can recognize, avoid, resist, and if necessary escape violence or harm in their lives. Education is the only thing that can change fear into power and radKIDS can and does give children the opportunity and power to live safer in our world today.”
With its home office in Massachusetts, radKIDS started in 2000 with a commitment to educating children to protect themselves as best as possible against harm that can come their way. Since its inception, the nonprofit organization has educated over a quarter million children throughout North America and trained almost 5,000 community instructors in the United States and Canada.
On the radKIDS website, four of the most terrifying issues a child can face are listed and explained in detail. Those horrors include child abduction, bullying and school violence, child abuse and neglect and child sexual abuse.
But, the organization says,
radKIDS know that “NO ONE” has the right to hurt them because they are ”special.” Not (just) strangers, “NO ONE,” which covers everyone and empowers a child with the opportunity to decide how they are treated as well as to trust their instincts.
All radKIDS know that, since “NO ONE” has the right to hurt them, then they do not have the right to hurt “ANYONE” else (including themselves), UNLESS someone is trying to hurt them and then they have every right to “STOP” them. In the radKIDS training curriculum we teach them how to physical stop, “anyone” from hurting them. This is taught through our “physical resistance to violence skills” that train and empower a child with real skills to defend themselves from physical harm.
The third foundational principal and maybe the most important that all radKIDS learn and know is “If anyone ever tries to hurt you, trick you, or make you feel bad inside or out, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT.” Since no one has the right to hurt them (Rule No.1) then if anyone ever does or has before radKIDS learn it is not their fault, so they CAN tell and keep telling until someone helps.
The radKIDS Summer Safety Camp aims to arm Cullman’s young ones with the skills they need to keep themselves as safe as possible by teaching them defensive skills to escape would-be attackers, how to call 911 and give the needed information to dispatch and much more.
The camp will be taught by City of Cullman DARE police officer Cindy Rohrscheib, who can be reached via email at cindyr@cullmancity.org or by calling 256-736-4703.
To reach the Cullman Civic Center, call 256-734-9157.
For more information on radKIDS and their curriculum, please visit www.radkids.org.
Find the event on Facebook at http://qrne.ws/radkids.
