The summer months are usually packed with different activities for the county’s youth to participate in while they are out of school, but city officials are hoping a new camp offered this year will inspire children to keep their minds on safety throughout the whole year.

The Franklin County SPAN Program is partnering with the Russellville Park and Recreation Department to present Safety First 2014, which is a series of camps that will take place at the Ralph C. Bishop Community Center in Russellville over the next week.

Remona Roberson, director of the Franklin County SPAN Program, said the SPAN Program staff had been brainstorming different ideas for ways they could offer helpful, informative classes to students that would address issues they felt students needed to know more about.

“Of course, drug use and prevention is always a great topic, but these students receive a good bit of information and instruction on that topic through the Drug Free programs in the schools,” Roberson said.

“We thought it might be good to do something a little different and that’s when we came up with the idea for the classes on different topics that relate back to safety.”

Roberson said there would be six different camps held at lunchtime at the community center, mainly for the children who would be participating in the summer feeding program.

“Since these children would already be at the community center, we thought this would be a good time to allow them to learn some good information while they were enjoying their lunch,” she said.

The topics covered over the six days will include a class on personal safety taught by Justin Green on June 10; a class on Internet safety taught by Melody Allen on June 11; a class on Home Safety taught by Justin Green on June 12; a class on neighborhood safety taught by Sheriff Shannon Oliver on June 17; a class on water safety taught by Jeff Studdard on June 18; and a session on being safe in all types of situations taught by Alana Parker on June 19.

“We think the kids who take part in these classes will walk away with some very valuable information that they will be able to use if they are even in an unsafe situation,” Roberson said.

Other children who haven’t already signed up for the classes through the park and rec’s summer feeding program can still participate in these safety camps.

To sign up or for more information, contact Remona Roberson at 256-332-0188.