Camp teaches that farm safety is for everyone
By Nancy Vander Schaaf
nanrvs@gmail.com
Date Modified: 07/15/2010 4:06 PM
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SIOUX CENTER, Iowa —A Progressive Agriculture Safety Day Camp recently held on the Sioux County fairgrounds taught children how to be safe on the farm whether they live there are or just visiting friends and relatives.
"I think the Farm Safety Day is very important for kids, but also for anyone," said coordinator Miranda Vander Ploeg. "It keeps them informedhow to act around certain machinery and animals."
Vander Ploeg, who has been involved with the camp for five years, said this is the 18th year the Sioux County event has been held. This year, 130 children ages nine through 13 attended.
"We also had 60 volunteers who helped make the day happen," said Vander Ploeg, "The FFA kids are our group leaders."
Each year, the Progressive Agriculture Foundation reaches more than 60,000 children across the country through 385 day camps. Their mission is to "make farm and ranch life safer and healthier for all children through education and training."
"We want you kids around for a long time," said volunteer Mike Schouten. He spoke about PTO and skidloader safety. He pointed out blind spots behind and alongside skidloaders.
"Stay at least 10 feet away from this stuff," warned Schouten.
A paper dummy was used to show that you can't pull away if clothing, gloves, hair, or shoestrings gets caught in a PTO shaft. In a split second it snapped it up and in.
"Keep shields in place and never climb over," said Schouten.
Volunteer firemen spoke about fire safety. They showed kids how to read the labels on their fire extinguishers. Then the kids got hands-on experience putting out fires using extinguishers.
Volunteer Dennis DeJong taught his audience to always treat a gun like it's loaded and to never point a gun at anything you don't plan to shoot.
"If you remember those two things, you'll be a lot safer gun handler," said DeJong.
"Being in a hurry makes mistakes and doesn't save time," says volunteer Steve Van Vliet, who demonstrated horse safety.
Other farm safety demonstrations included electrical safety, flowing grain safety, weather simulation and railroad crossing safety.
The Progressive Agriculture Safety Day Camp was founded by The Progressive Farmer magazine in 1995. They patterned their safety day camps after those conducted by Extension and Farm Bureau.