INDIANAPOLIS – When a preschool teacher at Robert Lee Frost 106 School watched her students get into cars home after the school closed, she noticed that a surprising number of them did not ‘had no car seats to sit on. In response, Lindsay Gibson decided to start a GoFundMe to help pay for car seats, and within a week, she had enough money to buy 20 new car seats.

“The majority of families didn’t even have a car seat at all, so the kids could get on and not even be strapped into a seat,” Gibson said. “We give them a safe place here at school, a safe place in my classroom, and then take them out and put them in a car without a car seat just didn’t feel right, so I wanted them to take this trip as well. safely. residence.”

Gibson has also partnered with the Indianapolis Fire Department to teach parents about the importance of car seats. The fire department already had a program to help get car seats for parents who needed them, and together they taught parents how to install the seats and when to use them.

“When you leave the hospital as a new mother with your baby, you have to have your child in a car seat before you can leave,” Gibson said. “After that, there aren’t really any guidelines on how long they should stay in a car seat, what kind of car seat, so it was a great partnership with [IFD] because they donated this educational piece.

This community service experience is definitely something Gibson wants to do again, especially after seeing how an act of kindness can knock over dominoes.

“You know it seemed like such a small act, which I did, and now it’s gotten a little bit as big and now I realize that while I didn’t want all of this publicity around it, but I’m thankful people open their eyes to it, “Gibson said.” I’d love to do more service projects like this. I’d love to partner with donors who could, so you know I doesn’t necessarily empty my friends and family’s banks all the time, but I would like to find other ways to help.

IFD has a form that individuals can complete online if they need help obtaining a car seat.