The Pilot Club of Troy visited the second grade classes at Troy Elementary School Tuesday to teach the students about brain safety.

The Pilot Club uses the “BrainMinders” program to show different ways to promote brain safety in a fun and relatable way. The BrainMinders program goal is to dramatically decrease the number of brain injuries through education.

According to the BrainMinders program, Someone in the world sustains a brain injury every 16 seconds.

“We push brain safety and awareness,” said Angel Tillery, president of the Pilot Club in Troy. “We come out to talk to the kids about their brains because there are so many accidents with four-wheelers, bicycles and tornadoes, even brain illness. We just try to push that, so they can keep their brain safe so they can be happy little children.”

In the program, puppets tell a story of different situations where kids can learn how to protect their heads, such as wearing a helmet when riding a bike, skateboarding, etc., always looking both ways before crossing a street and always wearing a seatbelt when riding in a vehicle.

The Pilot Club takes this program to all of the public and private schools in Pike County. This is the first year they have taught the program to second graders, as they usually teach the program to kindergarten classes.

“We thought we would come back in and talk to second grade and hit on things that are a little more serious and a little more in-depth,” Tillery said.

All of the students received coloring books that include the characters from the BrainMinders program, so the students can be reminded of their brain safety knowledge.

To get the kids excited about brain safety, the Pilot Club left two helmets with each class, so the teacher can award them to two students throughout the week. The teacher decides how he/she will award the helmets.