Building blocks for safety of Waikato tamariki

Gabrielle with her colourful creation.

Keeping our tamariki (children) road safe takes us all. Little learners need simple steps – and plenty of repetition – to build their awareness and understanding of how to stay safe around vehicles and our roads.

With patience, this approach helps them form safe habits early – and this matters.

So, how do we collectively build a safer Waikato for our little ones?

Enter Ruben the Road Safety Bear!

This friendly purple character is the Waikato Regional Council’s road safety mascot who helps children aged up to about 7 in the Waikato region learn about safe behaviour around footpaths, roads and traffic.

Ruben the Road Safety Bear, who is also known as Rūpene te Pea Haumaru Huarahi, loves sharing his safety tips in fun, interactive lessons. Some of these lessons are available online through activities like movies, story books, colouring in pages, singalong videos, and more. You can find them on the Ruben website.

Our Ruben road safety programme was started way back in 1997 and his bright purple fur and fun-filled educational visits have been a regular fixture at schools, preschools, kura, and Kohanga reo across the Waikato Region ever since.

Gabrielle, a long-serving presenter of Ruben’s road safety lessons, has spent many hours of her own time crafting a colourful Ruben portrait. This truly was a labour of love. "I have absolutely no idea how many pieces or hours have gone into my Lego Ruben build – my brain doesn't work that way," Gabrielle says.

"Once I start building, I just get carried away and go into 'the zone'," she says.

Gabrielle’s love for playing with Lego started back when she was a kid in the late 70s/early 80s.

"My brother had a sizable collection. In those days, it was very much seen as a ‘boy’s toy’. But when I had my own children in the 2000s, I always knew that once they were old enough, I'd be buying them heaps of Lego, and buy I did. So much so, that just a few years ago as they entered their teens, they begged me to stop buying Lego for them. That's when I realised I was the crazy Lego freak. I just embraced it and haven't looked back!"

So, what inspired her to dedicate all those hours carefully crafting such an intricate Lego-likeness of our road safety mascot?

"Making a Lego Ruben was very much a fusion of my two passions," Gabrielle says.

"I love my job, I've been working in the Ruben programme for over nine years now and certainly my favourite part is engaging with the children."

Gabrielle’s a dab hand at greebling.

Take a closer look at the Ruben portrait. Is that a tiny plastic banana? A miniscule crab? An itsy-bitsy daisy? Gabrielle used a technique called 'greebling' whereby you add extra detailing to a surface to make it more visually interesting. Isn’t it amazing?!

"For me it's very much a creative outlet. I don't keep sets made up, I just make lots of MOCs (My Own Creations)," says Gabrielle.

"I'm a member of HAMLUG (Hamilton Lego Users Group) and we have regular shows throughout the year to show off our sets and MOCs. Our big show is coming up over 10-11 August at the Claudelands Event Centre.

"I'll definitely be bringing my Ruben build along to it, as well as a few other bigger builds, as I feel Ruben is very much a local celebrity."

Jenny Davis, Road Safety Advisor at Waikato Regional Council, has worked within the transport team for several years since joining the council some 18 years ago. She developed her passion for road safety after seeing how the Ruben the Road Safety Bear programme can make a real difference to road safety outcomes.

"Gabrielle’s creation is amazing and such an innovative way to raise awareness and engage children and adults in the important conversations about helping each other stay safe when out and about. This includes driving at safe speeds so there is time to react if a child makes a mistake."

"Road safety is everyone’s responsibility and children need adult support to embed foundation road safety skills for their future wellbeing around roads, vehicles and traffic," Jenny says.

"The Ruben programme helps introduce and reinforce road safety messages but children mimic adult behaviour, so we all need to make the right choices every time we are out walking, cycling, scootering or travelling in a vehicle."

So, if your school or preschool, kura or Kohanga reo are in the Waikato region and you would like Ruben/Rūpene to visit and deliver his road safety lesson in English, te reo Māori or bi-lingually, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Ruben can also deliver his road safety lesson at some public events if promoting the safety of children up to about 7 years old is the focus. Ring 0800 800 401 and talk to our friendly team to see if your event would be an appropriate venue for Ruben.