Puppets Help Children Cope With Quakes

San Fernando Valley children already know to be afraid of earthquakes, but now, because of an American Red Cross puppet show, they can laugh at them, too.

“The earth can rumble. The house can shake. So here’s what I call beating the quake,” sang the Alpha Beasts to the giggling delight of a group of children in kindergarten through second grade at the Red Cross Kids Show, held recently at Gault Street Elementary School in Van Nuys.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into,” said Adolfo Panameno of North Hollywood, during a break between shows.

Panameno, a volunteer with the Red Cross, estimates he has performed for as many as 12,000 Valley children in the last few months.

The Kids Show is something that Red Cross program specialist Janice Mayhew had been trying to create to help smaller children for years.

“This is a three-year dream,” Mayhew said, adding that there had been earthquake preparedness programs for older children. “We were always searching for something.”

With help from a $1,000 grant from the Southern California Gas Co., the Red Cross started its Kids Show at the six-month anniversary of the Northridge Earthquake. Since then, the program has been performed for 47,000 children at schools, churches and special events, Mayhew said.

The show--aimed at students in kindergarten through fourth grade--uses audiotape and Sesame Street puppets manipulated by volunteers to teach the youngsters how to protect themselves during an earthquake.

“It reinforces what we’ve been teaching them all along,” said Gault Street Elementary School Principal John Kinnon. Many of his students were living in tents after last year’s earthquake, he said, and they know from school drills to duck under and grab the legs of their desks during a quake.

Most of the show tells the story of “Elmo and the Earthquake,” in which the character Elmo learns about finding “safety spots” to ride out an earthquake.

“Earthquakes make a noise like this?” asked Elmo, as Panameno shook him from behind a tall blue curtain. “Rumble. Rumble. Rumble. Rumble.”

The students laughed hysterically at the puppet, who had also called the phenomenon “earth cakes.”

“I love it,” said Maria Escobar, another Red Cross volunteer who had to stand on a cardboard box so her puppet could reach over the curtain. This was her first try as a puppeteer.

“I was nervous,” said Escobar, a Pacoima resident who is a nurse and a student. “Your hands get tired.”

“It’s really nice when you can show little kids how to protect themselves,” said Suzette Haughawout, a volunteer puppeteer from North Hollywood. Another volunteer on this day was semi-retired accountant Vicente Ticsay of Arleta, who was in charge of making toy blocks fall off a table to help simulate an earthquake.

The puppet show has scheduled performances into May, but to keep it running, Mayhew needs more volunteers. The current volunteers are reaching the end of their commitment and Mayhew needs puppeteers, drivers and someone to handle the scheduling and coordination of the shows.

Mayhew said she has already received requests to perform the show in Simi Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, giving her hope that the program could expand throughout Los Angeles.

“This could go all over if we had the people to run it,” Mayhew said.

To become a volunteer call either Mayhew or Eve Hanke at the Red Cross’ Van Nuys office at (818) 376-1785.

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