Multi-county effort to promote farm safety earns national recognition
By Heather Thorstensen
hthorstensen@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 05/27/2010 9:32 AM
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SLEEPY EYE, Minn.— Groups in three southwest Minnesota counties are showing the strength of teamwork.
In Renville, Redwood and Brown counties, FFA chapters, 4-H clubs, county Farm Bureaus, United FCS, Monsanto and Redwood Area Hospital are working together to promote farm safety.
Together, they form the RedBrownville Chapter of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, a non-profit organization based in Urbandale, Iowa. Its mission is to educate young people about farm safety to prevent injuries and fatalities.
The RedBrownville Chapter was recently named the 2009 Volunteer Chapter of the Year.Its members donated 2,335 hours and held 19 events to promote farm safety. Their events were attended by 3,290 people.
"They've been a very consistent chapter," said Tyler Vacha, chapter membership director for Farm Safety 4 Just Kids. "They've been one of our most productive chapters for several years in a row now."
The chapter's success comes from the members' ability to hold their own events throughout the year to promote farm safety but also join forces for larger events, said chapter representative Mary Hoffmann.
They worked together on a carnival with eight hands-on safety presentations for kids at last year's Farmfest.
"The people that we work with are really passionate about agriculture and, therefore, farm safety," said Hoffmann, who is also the agriculture teacher at Sleepy Eye High School.
Their work at Farmfest brought an additional honor from Farm Safety 4 Just Kids. They were one of eight chapters to receive the Crowing for Farm Safety award, which is given to those that use media and large events to spread their message.
The RedBrownville Chapter also received awards for reaching more than 10,000 people last year, logging more than 1,000 volunteer hours and teaching ideas and using methods outside of the original materials they were provided.
Since the chapter formed in late 2006, the group has built their own hands-on activities, such as a tug-of-war display made by Monsanto to demonstrate how difficult it is to pull someone out of a grain bin. They share these resources with each other.
The chapter has also used hands-on activities from the one of the Minnesota Farm Bureau's Farm Safety Trailers. These contain several materials to teach kids about farm hazards, such as tractor roll-overs and belt or chain pinch points.The trailer's activities gave the chapter ideas about what they could build for themselves in the future. They're trying to construct more of their own hands-on activities so they always have them available.
"Our eventual goal is to have a trailer of our own," said Hoffmann.
They are discussing the possibility of holding more events in their three-county area.
"We're trying to do as much about farm safety as we can," Hoffmann said.
She's found the multi-county effort to be a great experience.
"It's a unique opportunity and really great at the same time to get to work with those people," she said.
Another Minnesota chapter received the Horizons award, which goes to those that hold farm safety education programs outside their own communities. The chapter, Keep All Kids Safe, is based in Beaver Creek. They held seven events last year that 258 people attended.
Iowa
Iowa chapters also took awards. The Dubuque Chapter received the Crowing for Farm Safety award, the Madison Chapter got a 10-Year Chapter award, and Grundy County, Partners for Farm Safety, Koussuth, Town & Country, Audubon County and Page County earned 5-Year Chapter awards.
Farm Safety 4 Just Kids had more than 130 chapters in the United States and Canada as of last year. Approximately 5,500 volunteers donated 44,200 hours of their time to hold more than 1,000 community events.