GATESVILLE, N.C.–Progressive Agriculture Safety Days are as fun as they are educational. These one-day events teach children lessons that help keep them and those around them safe and healthy. The mission is to provide education and training to make farm, ranch and rural life safer and healthier for children and their communities.
Each year Gates County Extension hosts a Progressive Agriculture Safety Day for all 4th grade students in the county. Approximately 135 4th graders and 40 volunteers come together each June for a fun day of learning. Participants are divided into small groups of 10-15 that rotate between stations where lessons on a variety of safety topics are taught. To facilitate learning, educational, age-appropriate and fun hands-on activities and demonstrations are part of each lesson.
This year for our welcome we had 2 local farm families share about accidents that occurred on their farms that could’ve been prevented. You can bet that when participants attended the station on grain bin safety and the one on ATV safety they were paying attention. This year’s topics included water safety, grain bin safety, sun safety, healthy lifestyles, weather safety, electrical safety, first aid, chemical safety, ATV safety and the Agri-Pride Simulator.
It wouldn’t be possible to hold this kind of event without community support. NC Cooperative Extension Agents from surrounding counties come to help as well as Gates County Sheriff’s Department, Gates County Rescue Squad, Gates County Emergency Management, Gates County Soil and Water Conservation, Merchants Millpond State Park, Roanoke Electric Cooperative, and the Progressive Agriculture Foundation.
To demonstrate how quickly something can happen inside a grain bin our Ag Agent, Paul Smith, created this demonstration.
https://youtu.be/rTjYa2kmOvMSince we feel that this is a very impactful demo and was easy and inexpensive to put together, we have also created a tutorial video that could be shared with others.https://youtu.be/T9Xo6ik_1B0
We hope that this might help others, for more information please click here!
–Helen P. Eure,Gates County Center