AUGUST 5, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
Small rewards, big change at skate park GRASSROOTS
GOVERNMENT
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Kelly Owen’s fi rst trip to
Keizer’s Carlson Skate Park was
discouraging.
The Salem Health emer-
gency room and trauma nurse
estimated that less than a third
of the park’s users were wearing
helmets while they rode their
bikes, skateboards and scooters.
And that was the best rider-to-
helmet ratio of the four parks
she and co-workers visited in
the mid-Willamette Valley.
“It’s important that everyone
wear helmets because brain in-
juries are so tragic, but so pre-
ventable,” said Owen.
Getting kids to wear their
helmets has become something
of a crusade for Owen.
“In spring and summer of
2015, we had some really tragic
events resulting from longboard
and skateboard crashes. We had
some local kids end up with
life-changing traumatic brain
injuries and one was killed,”
Owen said.
Owen herself cared for more
than one of the injured riders,
and it got her thinking about
what more she could do to in-
tervene.
“I already do a lot of talks
in the schools about wearing
helmets, so it’s not like the kids
don’t have the information. We
have to get them to actually
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Above: Kelly
Owen talks with
Aaron Sanders
and Cameron
Hatfi eld.
Right: Kaia and
Silas Branch were
two of the riders
wearing helmets
on Owen’s recent
visit to Carlson
Skate Park.
KEIZERTIMES/
Eric A. Howald
wear the helmets,” Owen said.
The team decided that re-
warding good behavior might
be their best option. Armed
with donated $5 gift cards from
Dutch Bros. and Jamba Juice
and others that were purchased,
Owen set out on the fi rst of fi ve
unannounced visits to Carlson
Skate Park this summer.
In addition to goodies,
Owen brought along a poster
board advertising free gift cards
and featuring photos of two of
the crash victims she cared for.
On her fi rst visit, still only
about a third of riders were
wearing helmets. On her sec-
ond visit, helmet usage was up
to 50 percent. When she visited
for a third time Tuesday, July
26, about 80 percent of riders
were sporting headgear while
riding.
“I think we sometimes try
to make thing too hard. I truly
am amazed how something like
rewarding kids with a $5 gift
card seems to be making such a
huge difference,” she said.
For riders who don’t own
helmets, she keeps some on
hand to pass out, but even then
there are holdouts.
“Kids are very fussy about
their helmets and what they
look like,” Owen said. She ran
through a small supply of mul-
tisport helmets quickly and the
bike helmets remaining don’t
have the same look.
Her ace-in-the-hole at
Carlson is 14-year-old Cam-
eron Hatfi eld. Owen met
Cameron on her fi rst visit and
enlisted him as an ambassador
to talk with the other kids he
meets at the park.
“Most of them say it’s un-
comfortable or looks dumb,
but after talking to Kelly I
started wearing my helmet a
lot more,” Hatfi eld said. “If you
fall and get hurt that’s your
fault. You have to care about
your life.”
Hatfi eld said the older park
visitors are less receptive to his
message, but riders his age and
younger have been more open
to it.
“This parks gets a lot of kids
who are middle school and
younger, and I think we have
a better chance of redirecting
their behavior,” Owen said. “It’s
been our most successful park
in regard to increasing helmet
usage.”
Owen also hopes that in-
fl uencing behavior at the park
will increase helmet usage in
other community spaces. The
kids who were injured last
summer were riding on city
and county streets.
“The thing to remember is
that this is only a start. Parents
need to reinforce helmet usage
at home. It can change lives
later on,” Owen said.
To support helmet program,
contact the Salem Founda-
tion, 503-561-5576 or foun-
dation@salemhealth.org, and
make a donation to the injury
prevention program.
The Keizer Public Arts Commission had its most recent
meeting July 26. Here’s what was discussed:
• Commissioners voted to
renew agreements with the
seven artists who currently
have art featured along River
Road North. The agreements
will keep the artwork in place
through December 2017.
• KPAC is also looking to
add additional pads for public
art on River Road. Options
currently being explored are in
front of Dollar Tree, Can Staff, Leaving the Cold by
Ace Cash Express, Shari’s and Deborah Reid Denno,
the focal point on the southwest part of the Artist’s
corner of the Chemawa Road Trunk Show at Keizer
North-River Road North in- Civic Center.
tersection. Community Devel-
opment Director Nate Brown said reception from owners
at some of the locations has been lukewarm while others
are still being contacted.
• Commissioners are looking to fi ll open art display
spaces in the Keizer Civic Center between January and
March 2017.
• Fifteen portraits on the Keizer Mural Project at Town
and Country Lanes are complete with a dozen more left
to fi nish. Organizers are shooting for a Sept. 10 dedication
ceremony.
Tour Keizer with KPIC guides
The Keizer Points of In-
terest Committee meeting
scheduled for Tuesday, Aug.
16, will be a tour of all the
Points of Interest. The public
is invited.
The tour will begin at the
Keizer Civic Center, 930 Che-
mawa Road N.E., at 5:30 p.m.
Participants will carpool from
the civic center and be given
a map showing the points of
interest with informational
paragraphs as well as an agenda
with driving instructions.
For more information,
contact Debbie Lockhart at
503-856-3418.
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