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Scooter Town, a beloved James W. Lintott Elementary School tradition where kids simulate living and working in a community, made its annual return this week.
Contained to the James W. Lintott Elementary School gym in Chehalis, Scooter Town allows students to practice their social skills and get exercise while “driving” their scooters down “roads” between several “businesses” set up around the gym, including mini-versions of the post office, Lewis County Coffee Co., Providence Centralia Hospital and Midway Cinema.
Students can choose to take on a profession in Scooter Town like police officer or barista, or they can simply take up a scooter and patronize the various businesses as customers.
Students can even send letters to their classmates schoolwide via the Scooter Town Post Office and utilize the telephone booth to pretend to make a phone call, though those usually require some help from a grownup who is familiar with the old-fashioned landline system.
When students arrive in the gym for their scheduled physical education (P.E.) time during the two weeks of the year when Scooter Town is set up, each kid gets $5 from the official Scooter Town bank and some basic instructions: Use your manners, ask nicely at the drive thru, wear your uniform when you take a job and follow traffic rules. But aside from that, and ongoing supervision from P.E. teachers Melissa Varick and JoAnne Enbody to ensure students are following the rules and staying safe, the kids are given free rein of the make-believe town.
Varick first initiated Scooter Town at Cascade Elementary in 1998 as a program for her P.E. students. An Eagle Scout built the mini-businesses that populate Scooter Town as part of his Eagle Scout project and, years later, another Eagle Scout added new buildings to the collection and renovated some of the existing structures.
Scooter Town moved with Varick to Lintott when the new school opened in 2018.
