Grand Marais sixth-grader Toby Anderson recently attended Legionville school safety patrol training center in Brainerd. Attendees learn more than flag patrol duties; they learn about water safety and are trained in CPR. And, said Toby, they get to have fun playing games or swimming in their off times. Photo courtesy of Legionville
Toby Anderson recently returned from attending six days at the Legionville School Safety Patrol training center in Brainerd which is located on 560 mostly wooded acres on North Long Lake.
Camp was great, said Toby. It would have even been better if he could have taken his big fluffy cat, Tucker, with him. But Tucker presumably makes a better mouser than a flag patrol cat, so that options was out.
Camp was fun, but the schedule was rigorous, Toby said.
“We got up at 7 a.m. and cleaned our cabin, and then they inspected it. There were five cabins, and we got a score for cleanliness. We lost. There was a leak in the showers we couldn’t do anything about,” Toby said, shrugging his shoulders and brushing the hair from his glasses.
Following cleanup, the kids attended a flag-raising ceremony. Once done, Toby said the bell would ring signaling it was time for breakfast. After breakfast, they collected their notebooks and pencils from their cabins and attended class from 8 a.m. until noon.
“They (State Patrol officers) taught us CPR, first aid, flag patrol duties and how to take care of our flags, and watercraft and swim safety,” he said.
During free time the kids played games, swam and made friends with each other. In the evenings Toby said there was a canteen where, “We could buy books, snacks, ice cream, shirts, pop, lots of stuff.”
The Legionville Safety Patrol Training Center in Brainerd is the only school patrol training center in the U.S.
Established by the Minnesota American Legion in 1936, the primary purpose of the center is to train Minnesota youth in correct school patrol procedures at intersections and in bus patrol work.
Students between the ages of 8 and 13 are selected to attend and are sponsored by an organization in their hometown.
Although he was supposed to attend camp last summer when he was going into the fifth grade, Toby couldn’t go because there was a fouracre floating bog that settled in front of the camp’s beach and the camp was closed for the summer. It took 24 small boats and 25-30 volunteers to move “The Beast” as the bog was called. This summer, the floating green mass was gone, and Legionville ran on schedule.
When asked what he felt was the most important training he received, Toby didn’t hesitate, “Learning CPR.”
In fourth grade, Toby worked as a flag patrol for I.S.D. 166 in the mornings. Last year the school district had adults performing flag patrol duties on most days, but no kids. Toby said he hopes he can be a flag patrol operator for the school district again, but that will depend on decisions made by the school board in conjunction with the school administrators.
In the meantime, Toby wanted to thank Leah Carpenter, the local State Patrol officer who presented the Legionville scholarship to him so he could attend camp. He also wanted to thank the officers who provided training and guidance to him during his six-day stay.
Short of getting to take his cat Tucker with him to camp, everything was purrrfect, said Toby.
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