To celebrate the end of 2007 Safe Kids Week, Amarillo hosted an event at Will Rogers Elementary School on Friday, May 4th, 2007. Safe Kids Week events are fun ways for families to learn that close supervision, proper safety devices and other simple prevention measures help children avoid injury.
Summer is fast approaching and the kids will be looking for ways to entertain themselves. Over 500 students in groups of 15 to 20 rotated through the booths to receive precautionary advice at the day long event. Representatives affiliated with the Potter/Randall County Sheriff’s Department (stranger danger), Amarillo Fire Department, Amarillo Parks and Recreation Department (water safety), Amarillo Animal Control, Texas Department of Transportation (motor vehicle/seat belt/rollover safety), and the Texas Bicycle Coalition Safe Routes to School Program (always wear a helmet, and bicycle safety and maintenance) provided valuable information to the students.
Safe Kids is an international nonprofit organization dedicated solely
to preventing unintentional childhood injury. The organization
supported by Johnson & Johnson, promotes changes in attitudes,
behaviors, laws and the environment to prevent accidental injury to
children, focusing on problems for children ages 1 to 14. Their vision
for a comprehensive national campaign to protect children from their
leading killer, accidental injury, is a vision for a safer world. In
the United States, Safe Kids organizations have contributed to a 45
percent reduction in the child fatality rate from accidental injury.
They have helped distribute more than 2.5 million bike helmets and
250,000 smoke alarms and checked more than 740,000 car seats.
Local Outreach Coordinators Joyce Cunningham and Fernando Martinez want to thank guest
volunteer Steven White for his assistance, and Will Rogers Elementary
School for their participation to implement safety programs and
hands-on training for their students and community.
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