Racer teaches kids' safety

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

The method is tried and true. Get the kids flocking around a brightly colored sports car capable of speeds over 200 mph and then teach them safety tips they can use the rest of their lives.

NASCAR driver Mike Markison of LaPorte, who's known as "The Enforcer" at the racetrack, has a passion for teaching self-defense tactics to children. The National Security Alliance and Kid-Safe Network have named Markison as one of their spokesmen to teach child safety and danger awareness.

A visit to Cache La Poudre Elementary School on May 6 is one of many activities he and his racecar team tackle throughout the year. "A little girl can push back a 200-pound man with a straight finger into his throat," Markison noted.

Here are a few more simple safety tips:

• A child should scream and yell, "This is not my parent," if someone attempts to abduct him or her in a public place.
• Parents should not put their child's name on the outside of a backpack where it is easily read by a predator.
• When walking, children should look confident, holding their heads up high and looking around. A predator is unlikely to choose such as child as a victim.
• Children should avoid walking near vans or delivery trucks where someone could be hiding to reach out and grab them.
• Children should never walk through parking lots by themselves.
• Children should never walk alone after dark.
• Children and adults should trust their instincts. Markison said many people wish they had intervened after it's too late.

Markison also offers a free, one-hour self-defense class to first-time students from 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays at Total Ryu Traditional Martial Arts, 1412 Webster Ave., in Fort Collins. Markison's two daughters, students at CLPE, are both in martial arts.

Groups wanting to schedule a safety demonstration should call Total Ryu at 481-8641.

Eleven years of racing have given Markison the reputation he also parlays into fund-raising for children's causes, including the Boys and Girls Clubs, Children's Hospital, Special Olympics and Missing Children's Week. Following his example, racecar drivers are placing photos of missing children on their cars.

In 1994 he was rookie of the year, followed by three championships, at Big Country Speedway in Cheyenne. He moved on to NASCAR racing in 1998 and earned rookie of the year at the Colorado National Speedway. Markison said he sees the raceway as a big stage, with audiences up to 17,000, to advocate for good causes.

In addition to safety awareness, Markison uses his racecar at schools to tell students that math, geometry and reading are important subjects. He demonstrates by describing the "polar moment" in racing. Markison especially likes introducing a woman, Christine Warner, as crew chief of his six-member racing team. That always piques the interest of young girls, he noted.

"If we can save one life, this whole thing is worth it," Markison added.