Kiwanis members and Glendale police team up to deliver helmets to local students

The Glendale Kiwanis Club partnered with Glendale Police Department on Thursday afternoon to deliver helmets to 70 first-graders at John Marshall Elementary School.

This marks the fourth consecutive year that club members have given helmets to Glendale youngsters as part of their bike safety program, an idea that initially came from Kiwanian Jack Bilheimer, who secured grant funds four years ago to deliver helmets to students at three Glendale schools.

This year, the club is in the process of giving helmets to students at 12 Glendale Unified schools.

“This is the first year for this particular school, so we’re really excited about it,” Bilheimer said.

In all, $6,700 that the Kiwanis Club pitched in this year will supply helmets for roughly 1,250 children across the dozen campuses.

Four Glendale police officers, dressed in uniform, delivered the helmets to Marshall’s first-graders, including officer Larry Ballesteros, who encouraged the children to make eye contact every time they cross a street.

“I want you guys to use your eyes. If that driver doesn’t see you, you don’t go,” he said.

The students were also told to wear their new helmets any time they use a skateboard, bicycle, scooter or roller skates.

Several of the Glendale Kiwanis Club members watched the delivery, including President Jose Sierra, who said that the money supplying the helmets is only a portion of about $130,000 that will benefit Glendale residents through September 2016, when he steps down from the president’s post he took on last month.

Some of the $130,000 will pay for the donation of rice and beans to the Salvation Army and student scholarships, among other things.

Of those funds is about $86,000 the club raised during its annual Kiwanis Incredible Duck Splash fundraiser in October, Sierra said.

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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan