WATERLOO REGION – Waterloo Rural Women (WRW) are planning their 24th annual Children’s Farm and Home Safety Day June 1. The event will run from 9am to 1pm at Cookridge Farms.
“We are focusing on creating safety awareness with school-age children,” said WRW board member Sharon Grose. Children will be divided into small groups and tour each of the eight stations throughout the day.
Grose notes organizers are looking for volunteers to assist with leading groups of students to the various stations. Volunteers would be assigned to a group for the morning.
Parents are encouraged to stay and are welcome to assist by leading a group.
High school students can earn volunteer hours. Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Susan Martin at 519-669-8066
There will be eight different stations that students will visit. An OPP officer will be talking about bike safety, firemen will talk about fire safety and students will learn how to operate a fire extinguisher.
A local farm machinery dealership will be discussing large machinery safety, PTO, lawn mower and four-wheeler safety.
“If we can protect children from serious injury or fatal death by taking the time to demonstrate the dangers of a PTO shaft or blade and maybe save them from any dangerous encounter – it is time well spent,” said Grose.
“We’re trying to protect our farmers of the future. People wonder why we bother to host a farm safety day each spring but we have a committed group of volunteers who feel strongly about educating children about farm safety. Farm kids are exposed to a lot of things at a young age.”
Grose added, “We only hear about the accidents that happened but we don’t hear about the accidents we have prevented by talking to students. Farm accidents happen in just a matter of seconds. Those close calls serve as a wake-up call and I know how important it is to get the message out to others, especially young children so they don’t have those close calls.
“Farm children live where their family works, and often times they don’t see or are not aware of the many hazards of their daily surroundings” said Grose.
“We want to try and make children aware of the dangers and hazards found on the farm. Often times children will pay more attention if someone other than their parents reminds them of the dangers. Farm families live where they work, we want them to be safe.”
Grose added, “It is important to get information out to kids when they are just starting to work on the farm, before they get drawn into bad habits. If we can teach children safe hopefully it will stay with them for life.
Register by contacting Donna Rogers at 519-576-1933 dmrogers@sympatico.ca.
