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Safety Day Camps
Across Ontario and across the country there are many local farm safety organizations that put on Farm Safety Day Camps. These are usually one day events where children are taught everything escaping a burning building.
Although many of the stations that children rotate through are farm oriented, the big emphasis is on safety. Check with your local farm safety organizations to see if there is a day camp near you.We have often wondered how much information sticks with the kids after their day of safety. We often receive many anecdotal comments from parents, sometimes long after the event. In one case, a farmer was hooking up some equipment to his
tractor and suddenly he heard his small child scream as he was about to step
over the power take off shaft. He stopped dead in his tracks to see what was wrong. Even though the shaft had not been engaged, the child explained
that no one should step over a PTO shaft. They recounted the demonstration they had seen where a straw dummy literally exploded when caught in a rotating shaft.
Here was a child lecturing the father about safety and from that point on the farmer
decided to be extra cautious around machinery. They even sat down and had a talk about what else the child had learned at the day camp in question.Many such stories have come back to the Farm Safety Association and because of their children, many farmers have taken safety to heart. Some have said that it made them think of how their child’s life would change if they were seriously njured or killed while working. Probably the best reason to keep being safe is coming
home at the end of a long day to your children, all in one piece.
© 2007 Country Kids Safety Network