Light Program Blazing Success Glow, Visible For 1,000 Feet, Lets Drivers Know There’S A Child Ahead

The flashing red lights Post Falls Middle School students have been wearing are mostly tucked away now as the sun rises earlier and sets later.

But organizers of the Light-A-Child program don’t want drivers to forget that seeing a red light bobbing along in the darkness means a child is there. And they want to continue the program for students in the future.

Post Falls Middle School students attend class in two shifts to ease overcrowding. During the winter, that means half go to school before dawn and the other half go home after sunset.

That has made parents like Debbie Mykkanen and Terry Baber uneasy.

The death of one student, Nick Scherling, in November 1997 highlighted many parents’ fears. He’d been walking his bike home from school in the dark when Connie Bickley, who was drunk, hit and killed him.

Mykkanen, Baber, the Spartan Parents Association and the Post Falls Ambulance organized a drive that gave every student at the school a flashing red light.

“White clothing is only visible from 50 feet and stopping distance is about 150 feet,” Mykkanen said.

The flashing red lights, however, are visible 1,000 feet away, she said.

Fund-raising efforts are slowing now, because all middle school students have the lights for this semester. There are even enough lights left over that they probably will be able to give one to every child in the fall, too, Mykkanen said.

“They are so invisible until they shine that light,” she said. “We’d like the program to not disappear once the high school is built. We want the kids walking home from sports activities to be wearing them.”

Voters passed a school construction bond a year ago to build a new high school, which will open in the fall of next year.

The Post Falls Ambulance has been eliminated, so the Post Falls Fire Protection District will take over its role in the program. Any donations to the Light-A-Child program can be taken to the Post Falls Fire Station.

Main donors It costs about $3,000 per year to operate the Light-A-Child program in Post Falls. These were the main donors to the program for the 1998-1999 school year. Coeur d’Alene Pediatrics, $500 Post Falls Ambulance, $500 The Idaho Spokesman-Review, $500 ShopKo, 300 batteries 3M Co., reflective tape Post Falls Super 1 Foods, batteries Prairie View Parent Teachers Organization, $100 Kootenai Medical Center, $100 Spartan Parents Association, $100 General Pneumatic Tools, $100 Check-It-Out Video in Post Falls, free movie rentals Taco Bell, free tacos Post Falls Arby’s, free ice cream Central Pre-Mix, $50 Les Schwab Tires in Post Falls, $50 Dr. Michael Carraher, $25 N.D. Matewson, $25 VFW Ladies Auxiliary, $25 Northwest Utilities, $20 Jennifer Fehlmen, $20 Numerous smaller donations from students and parents and $200 worth of donations gathered on Halloween.