PINEHURST — Last month, students at Pinehurst Elementary School took part in their annual Bicycle Helmet Safety event.

The event is put on every year by Kootenai Health and has become a staple in PES’ end-of-the-year activities.

Altogether, 122 helmets were handed out and 219 students were educated in just one afternoon.

With new information coming out daily on the importance of head safety and the damage head trauma and concussions can cause, it has become important that every child understands early on how important it is to keep their noggins shipshape.

Prior to the event, information was sent home asking parents if their kids had a helmet. If they did not, they automatically qualified to receive a helmet. If they did have one, those children were to bring it with them to school on the day of the event so it could be checked for fit and quality.

If it did not fit or was cracked or damaged in any way, it was replaced.

The people from Kootenai Health started with a short educational class to make kids aware of the importance of wearing a helmet before passing out the helmets and checking the others.

PES principal Mike Groves believes that it is very important for the kids to understand the importance of wearing a helmet.

“We want our kids to be as safe as possible and with that comes understanding that they need to protect their heads when they are on their bikes,” he said. “With summer right around the corner and kids being on their bikes more often this seemed like the right time to try and get the importance of helmets in their minds.”