Puppet show buckles down vital lesson

LESSON: Constable Bryan and Bobby visited St Patrick's School in Masterton last Friday with a safety message about car seats and restraints. Pictured, from left, is pupil Zeb Wheeler, 5, puppeteer Jimi Liversidge and Bobby the police dog, Senior Constable Bryan Ward and pupil Jet Riwai-Couch, 5. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Constable Bryan and Bobby the police dog led lessons in seat belt safety at Wairarapa schools last week and will soon have talked to a million Kiwi kids since starting out together almost a decade ago.

Senior constable Bryan Ward said he and Bobby - aka puppeteer and graphic designer Jimi Liversidge - were at St Patrick's School in Masterton last Friday and have been on the road together, and recording segments for network television, for nearly 10 years.

The two visited other Wairarapa schools last week and held shows for primary schoolchildren in Eketahuna and Featherston.

Each school had a Bryan and Bobby resource kit, he said, and each show lasted for close to a half hour and included "song and dance and a bit of a ditty as well".

"Next year is actually our tenth year of going out to the schools and next week we're going to be in Tauranga and somewhere there, we'll be seeing our one millionth kid," Mr Ward said.

"It's interesting because there are 15-year-olds out there who were five when we first started and they come up to us at high school and tell us they remember watching us as little kids. They even remember some of the messages we were putting across too. It's pretty cool."

Mr Ward said he paired up with Mr Liversidge, who designed Bobby to be held in his arms - and animated in a basket - for ease of live performance, soon after the graphic designer had toured New Zealand with Sesame Street puppeteer Carroll Spinney, creator of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.

"He said he'd be really keen and so we kicked it all off. I definitely didn't think I'd end up doing this when I joined the force," he said.

"I actually started in the CIB because I wanted to solve serious crime. But I'd been fundraising for the children's hospital in Auckland and got speaking to [television presenter] Suzy Cato about the lack of a a show like hers in schools. Next thing I know, that's what I'm doing."

The live show pivots and thrives on a stream of banter between Mr Ward and Bobby, Mr Liversidge said, mirroring the rapid chatter between movie characters Shrek and Donkey.

Mr Ward said he took on the shows full time about two years ago, after about 16 years of policing and detective work in South Auckland.

He and Mr Liversidge, also ambassadors for several children's charities, completed 75 shows that each focussed on a subject involving safety and well-being for children and several themes had been national firsts in child education using such a format.

"We did a show on earthquake safety about six years ago and people were scratching their heads and wondering why we did it - then, tragically, the quakes hit Christchurch. We've also done a show recently on death and grieving for kids, which was a first as well.

"It's actually a matter of getting the funding and everybody together to do it. There's nothing complicated about what we do and we're really lucky to have a lot of really good people behind us now - university researchers and people in social projects - and that really helps enhance what we do.

"All up, it's been a great roller coaster ride so far."