Volunteer Thanked For Child Pedestrian Training

A WELL-KNOWN Chinnor and Thame Friend of the Earth, who has devoted 16 years of her life to voluntary child pedestrian training is to be thanked by Oxfordshire County Council for her work.
Maureen Dyroff has helped hundreds of youngsters at the Jack and Jill Pre-school in Chinnor since the early 1990s. She has been the driving force of the project at the Chinnor pre-school since the Footsteps child pedestrian training scheme was set up county-wide.
Maureen and her team of staff and volunteer parents, are among the 1,300 volunteers being thanked by the county council’s road safety team for their commitment to teaching vital life saving skills to children as part of Footsteps.

Local county councillor, David Wilmshurst, will be presenting Maureen with a bouquet of flowers on Thursday, June 7, as a token of thanks. Children at the pre-school will be drawing pictures of their experiences and these will be displayed for parents to view.

Maureen said: “I have seen the Footsteps programme develop over the years and I have observed how the practical training has affected the behaviour of the children and, equally importantly, the parents. If we save just one child all the years will have been worth it.”

Sarah Gniadek Pitt, Oxfordshire County Council’s Road Safety Officer, added: “Maureen is one of the army of 600 plus volunteers who help children develop these decision making, life saving skills to keep them safe now and in the future.
“The support of the volunteers is very much appreciated and on behalf of the county council I thank them.”

Photo: Maureen Dyroff at a recent Green Fayre, wearing one of her many, volunteer ‘hats’