TIFTON — A Kids’ Safety Expo will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Tifton Mall parking lot.

The Kids’ Safety Expo is organized by 15-year-old Nicole Taylor and her organization, Citizens for the Safety of Children, as an attempt towards protecting children and providing them with safety information and demonstrations.

There will be hamburgers, hot dogs, drinks and a bake sale with all proceeds going towards Katrina Spires’ teddy bear drive to aid children of traumatic accidents.

At 11 a.m. there will be a house fire simulation which will show how emergency personnel work together in the event of a structure fire. At noon Chris Sandy will speak about driving under the influence and the consequences involved. Sandy was found guilty in 2000 of two counts of DUI vehicular homicide. At 1 p.m. there will be a DUI wreck simulation.

There will also be smoke house simulator set up all day and the Tift County Sheriff’s Office will demonstrate their “Fatal Vision” program.

Taylor has been organizing the Kids’ Safety Expo since 2004, when she was watching the news with her mother and heard about 11 year-old Carlie Brucia who went missing and was later found dead in Sarasota, Fla.

Taylor and her mother spoke with Chief Troy Ball of the Eldorado Volunteer Fire Department and then Chief Mike Flippo of the Tift-Tifton County Fire Department. Together they organized the first Kids’ Safety Expo and held it at Lowe’s Home Improvement in Tifton in April 2004. Since then Taylor has helped organize shows in Omega, Moultrie, Sylvester and one at Reed Bingham Park.

“My hope is to turn this into a yearly event,” Taylor said. “If it saves even one life, it’s worth all the effort.”

For more information about the safety expo or to join Taylor’s group, Citizens for the Safety of Children, call 326-7092 or e-mail at citizens_for_the_safety_of_children@hotmail.com.

To contact reporter Chivaun Perez, call 382-4321.