Danville District 118 students have been on Fall Break this week. But some of the students have been spending time learning about traffic safety, during morning and afternoon classes at the Danville Police Department’s Friendly Town in Lincoln Park.
Officers Brandon Williams and Josh Long have been running the show out there. And Officer Long says the whole idea about opening Friendly Town for classes during Fall Break came when some summer storms closed the Lincoln Park village for a while.
(Middle Picture) Friendly Town instructors: Officer Brandon Williams and Officer Josh Long.
AUDIO: And when we had the storm damage from the summer storm, I came up with the idea of trying to run a class over fall break for those kids that missed out during the closure of Friendly Town during the summer. So I reached out to some kids that missed, and here we are.
Officer Long says from the improvements envisioned by Police Chief Christopher Yates to all the time and funding donations from the community, Friendly Town’s resurgence continues to shine. And Long also says if you’re thinking about getting your young students signed up for next summer, be ready when the time comes.
AUDIO: The Chief has done an amazing job, and a lot of the donations that we’ve gotten, the help from the community, with the upgrades that we’ve done out here; my classes for the summer fill up very, very fast. I’ll send out my summer registration forms about mid-March. And I always tell everybody, if you want to get in there during the summer, get them back to me quick.
But once classes wind down at the end of Fall Break, that does not mean Friendly Town is staying quiet until 2027. Coming up real soon; Saturday, October 24th; will be the annual BOO BASH. Officer Long says you just might see between 2,000 and 2,500 kids show up with their families at that special Halloween themed event. It’s “frightful, free family fun” from 5 to 7 PM on the 24th.
