Grundy County Extension was awarded the opportunity to host two Progressive Agriculture Safety Days this year. Events were held Tuesday, May 1st with 3rd & 4th graders from Grundy County schools and Thursday, June 7th with K- 2nd graders from Grundy County.

Youth learned about a variety of safety topics at both camps. On Tuesday, May 1st youth from BCLUW, Dike-New Hartford, AGWSR, Timothy Christian, Reinbeck & Grundy Center attended eleven safety sessions during the school day at the Grundy County Fairgrounds. Community partners helped teach sessions on chemicals, tractor & semi visibility, animals, electricity, sun, first aid, gun & outdoors, grain bin, fire, & hidden safety hazards. Green Belt Bank & Trust served hotdogs to 253 youth & approximately 40 volunteers within fifteen minutes.

On Thursday, June 7th youth learned about chemicals, animals, tractor & semi visibility, hidden safety hazards, sun safety, fire, electrical, stranger danger, first aid & participated in a hand washing activity. Employees from Monsanto treated the kids to a puppet show about animal safety and gave the kids an opportunity to play with the puppets and ask questions after the show.

The hope is that by sharing and applying lessons learned at our safety days will help participants reduce the number of rural children who are injured or die from accidents. Safety Days are made possible by Progressive Agriculture Foundation and the many sponsors that support the organization. Their sponsorship includes free T-shirts for everyone, goodie bags, insurance, curriculum, training for coordinators, and support for the safety day. Grundy County Extension was also awarded a $9000 grant from Monsanto Foundation to help provide safety teaching kits and items for goodie bags that the youth are given at the end of the day. The success of our Progressive Agriculture Safety Days is largely due to the tremendous support of organizations in Grundy County who either donate items for goodie bags or employees and volunteers to help teach safety sessions throughout the day.

Safety Day is important! It’s great to hear back from our families about how much the youth enjoyed the event or how one youth was able to use their knowledge to get through their own tragic accident, or how excited a youth was because they got to meet our local firemen, try on a fire suit or get in a tractor, semi or police car and check out the sirens up close.