KIDS' SAFETY DAY

By Sr. Agent Scott Watson

Every year in Franklin Parish we gather every 5th grader in the parish together, and try to make them a little more safety minded. The kids are exposed to safety information in over a dozen different areas. In April 2004 we will participate in the 4th Annual Kids Safety Day. Some of the agencies involved are the Franklin Parish Sheriff’s Office, Northeast Louisiana Ambulance Service, 4-H Extension Office, Louisiana State Police, Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Enforcement Division, Winnsboro Fire Department, Northeast Louisiana Power, Winnsboro Equipment, and many others.

The 5th graders are brought to the park in Winnsboro, and divided into groups of about twenty. Each group is assigned a color, and that is how their group is differentiated from the others. Each group also has two teachers who stay with the group all day.
We have approximately fifteen stations set up, and each station covers a safety topic that we feel is very important to the well-being of these kids. The station that I have is Boat & Water Safety. Some of the other stations are seat belt safety, electrical safety, gun safety, farm equipment safety, household poison safety, 911, and bicycle safety just to list a few.

Usually the number of kids runs around three hundred. The start is signaled by blowing a horn at 8:30 a.m. Each group then visits a station, and the instructor has about fourteen minutes to convey as much information as possible to the group. When the horn blows again, you have a two minute break and you start all over again with another group. This process continues all day, with a thirty minute lunch break.
The first year that we held the safety day, I was a little reluctant about the idea of having to deal with 300 5th graders all day long, but I must say that my thoughts have changed greatly. I basically stand there all day long and say over and over that you need to wear your life jacket. If I had a dollar for each time that I use the words life jacket on that day, I could take a pretty good vacation on it. Usually by the end of the day my throat is sore from preaching on life jackets, but the effort is well worth it if the message gets across to just one kid.

There are so many people that make this day come together that I can’t possibly mention them all, but I do want to mention a couple that go way above and beyond. Sergeant Hoyt Irwin with the Franklin Parish Sheriff’s Office and Mr. Gary Peters (owner) of Northeast Louisiana Ambulance deserve special recognition for their efforts in organizing this event. So far we’ve had rain free days, so everybody keep their fingers crossed that this year goes as well.