Global Toy News Insight
MAGLITE’s partnership with the Pedestrian Safety Institute demonstrates how an established consumer brand can connect its core product identity with a meaningful social mission. By sponsoring the free Safe Road Adventures curriculum for K–5 students, MAGLITE is extending its association with visibility and roadside safety beyond the flashlight aisle and into classrooms and communities. The initiative also offers a smart model for purpose-driven brand building: rather than simply attaching its name to a cause, MAGLITE is helping deliver an educational program designed to create measurable, real-world impact. For brands across the toy, children’s and family industries, the collaboration highlights the opportunity to use familiar characters, music, activities and storytelling to make serious safety lessons more engaging and memorable for kids.
This story may not be directly about toys, but it checks a few boxes that made us feel it was worth sharing. It involves kids, a meaningful partnership between two organizations, and—most importantly—a cause focused on keeping children safe. MAGLITE’s collaboration with the Pedestrian Safety Institute is using education and awareness to help protect young pedestrians, and that’s the kind of initiative we’re always happy to shine a light on.
Almost 1,000 children a year are struck and killed by automobiles, and tens of thousands more are badly injured – TheSaferRoad.Com curriculum will save lives!
ONTARIO, Calif., July 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Last year, more than 7,000 pedestrians were killed when struck by cars (some 700 of those were children) and tens of thousands more were injured. MAGLITE® flashlights have been featured in kids’ entertainment over the years, most notably in the Nancy Drew books and, more recently, in the Dora the Explorer live-action film. The brand’s longstanding annual commitment to roadside traffic safety awareness led to the creation of the Safe Road Adventures K-5 Curriculum through Pedestrian Safety Institute (PSI), a roadside safety initiative that MAGLITE® partnered with several years ago to combat roadside fatalities.
Upon the request of Tony Maglica, Sr., the 96-year-old founder and inventor of the iconic MAGLITE® flashlight, the PSI team went to work and came up with Safe Road Adventures™, a free 5-week, 15-minute-a-week curriculum that teaches kids how to be safe around vehicular traffic through core principles lessons, workbooks, drawings, and an original “Cross The Road” song and dance with the animated characters of Maggie The Chick and her friend Sol The Duckling. For participating schools, this curriculum will culminate in a school-wide assembly, cementing the principles of roadside safety in the minds of K-5 students. For teachers, this free curriculum is an easy add-on to their current lesson plans. For parents and homeschoolers, it is a fun weekly activity that will potentially save the lives of their children.
“Learning these critical skills will save children’s lives, and that’s why we are excited about the program,” said Tony Maglica, Sr. “Any time a child is killed or injured, it is devastating for the family, their friends, their school, and the community, and we are doing what we can by sponsoring this program of the Pedestrian Safety Institute to reduce the number of these tragic accidents.”
The program teaches kids the importance of looking before crossing the street with the “look left, right, left” drill and song, teaches the importance of making sure you are seen by oncoming traffic “see and be seen,” and being patient when crossing the street “1-2-3 wait for me.”
“The United States had more than 7,000 pedestrian deaths last year, and around 10% or 700 of those were children who were killed, and tens of thousands more were struck and injured, often severely,” said Lou Desmond, spokesperson for PSI. “It is fantastic that MAGLITE® has stepped up and sponsored this program to help children stay safe.”
The number of pedestrian deaths goes up when the days get darker and longer, and low visibility (darkness) is a huge factor; some 90 percent of traffic fatalities happen between the hours of dusk and dawn, according to a variety of government and private studies on the matter of pedestrian traffic deaths and injuries.
“As the maker of the iconic Maglite® Flashlight, lighting the darkness and providing visibility is in our DNA,” said Maglica.
The curriculum is available for free at www.thesaferroad.com, and the staff at PSI are ready to assist any school that wants to implement the curriculum, which will officially be launched at the 22nd Annual School Safety Conference in Orlando, Florida. For help with implementing the program or any questions you may have, please go to the “Get Support” tab at https://www.thesaferroad.com/.
