Safetyville USA

Safetyville USA is a miniature town, complete with miniature scale California State Capitol building, miniature municipal building, business buildings, and small streets, located in Sacramento, California. Safetyville USA is part of the non-profit Safety Center, Inc.'s Children's Safety Program which provides life-saving safety education. Safetyville USA was opened at the Safety Center in 1984. The 1/3 scale town [ [http://www.sacbee.com/451/story/14240.html Sacramento Bee newspaper story] ] is complete with real sidewalks, crosswalks, streetlights, a police, fire and sheriff station, and businesses that can be found in any city.

The goal of the Safetyville program is to reduce injury and possible death of children resulting from preventable accidents. A trained volunteer tour guide leads children, preschool through third grade, through the town teaching them a variety of safety skills, including: fire, bicycle, pedestrian, electrical, stranger danger, and railroad safety. Since the opening of Safetyville USA, over 125,000 Northern California children have benefited from this experience. Approximately 10,000 children tour Safetyville USA each year.

Walking through Safetyville can give one the feeling of being in Gulliver's Travels as you feel like a giant wandering through the small streets with miniature street signs and miniature buildings.

"A walk through Safetyville, USA, can induce a sense of vertigo. Stop signs and traffic lights are no taller than your midriff; you can easily peer into the second-story windows of buildings, and you would have to get on your hands and knees to crawl through the McDonald's drive-through," reports visitor W. Higgins in "The Metropolis Observed". [ [http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0298/fe98safe.htm The Metropolis Observed, Safetyville USA by William Higgins] ]

Safetyville USA has a child 'Mayor of Safetyville' who presides at the "Halloween Haunt" and "Safetyville Family Health and Safety Expo". Another popular event held at Safetyville is the "Taste of the Little City [http://www.safetycenter.org/sv_events.html] ", which raises funds for Safetyville's activities, and features top restauranteers and vintners from the Sacramento region and nearby Napa Valley and the California Gold Country, as well as media celebrities.

"The charming little village of Safetyville takes on a starlit ambiance in which you can enjoy live music, the finest wines, amazing food, and premier silent & wine auctions, all to benefit the youth education program at Safetyville USA," says Mix96. [ [http://www.kymx.com/pages/867384.php The Mix96] ]

State and regional organizations and businesses sponsor buildings in Safetyville and include the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Motor Vehicles, Sacramento Metro Fire District, Sacramento City Fire Department, Sacramento Police and Sheriff Departments, and others. [ [http://www.safetycenter.org Safety Center Inc. ] ]

Safetyville USA is located east of downtown Sacramento, one mile south of Highway 50 on 3909 Bradshaw Road, Sacramento, California.

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