Before heading out to the open water, review some dos and don'ts with your family to make sure everyone stays safe and has fun this summer!

Wearing a life jacket can save your life!

If you are in need of a life jacket for use at the pool, lake, a camping or fishing trip, or a weekend outing to a hotel pool or water park, inquire about the Life Jacket Loaner Program at the YMCA Grand Forks.

Child and adult sized jackets are available for use at NO COST!

Life jacket loaners programs have been set up by Safe Kids Grand Forks at other locations in our region. They can be found here.

As the weather starts to warm up, ATV's will become a more popular mode of transportation. In recent years, we have seen an increase in the number of injuries and fatalities from these large and heavy machines. Here are some safety tips for ATV users.

ATV E-Course

Thanks to a generous grant from MN Safe Routes to School, Safe Kids Grand Forks was able to add a bike fleet and trailer to our inventory of safety gear. This equipment gives us the ability to share bike safety with more of the students in our region by hosting bike rodeos.

Currently, our partners, with the Optimists Club provide bike rodeos to our Grand Forks and East Grand Forks schools. While we offer Safety on Wheels presentations to our regional schools, bike rodeos were not something we could do. The grant purchased 10 bikes of various sizes, 2 strider bikes and 2 special needs adaptive bikes, along with our trailer, giving more students this tremendous opportunity.

The new equipment has made its debut at our Hands on Learning Fair and has so far visited Cathedral Catholic School and Highland Elementary in Crookston MN. 

We are so honored to have been entrusted with these funds!

This spring we had the opportunity to visit 26 different schools to share helmet safety information with 3^rd grade students. Our Spring schedule includes both our Grand Forks/East Grand Forks private schools as well as our regional schools throughout eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. Every student at these schools had the opportunity to purchase a bike or multi-sport helmet and have it fitted during our visit. 

The Safety on Wheels presentation asks why people choose not to wear helmets, dispels many of the myths and misunderstandings of helmet use and wheeled sports, and demonstrates, using eggs, how a helmet protects. Each class learned how to choose the right helmet and make sure it fits. Many students were surprised to note that they should wear helmets even when they were only pedaling a short distance, or even if they consider themselves wheeled sports experts. Students discussed some of the risks of head injuries, and learned what a concussion is.

Overall, more than 200 helmets were distributed at these visits, which is so exciting when we consider the potential injury reduction as kids play on bikes, scooters, skateboards or in-line skates. 

Thank you to our Safety on Wheels partners, The Grand Forks Optimist Club, Grand Forks Park District and Minnesota Safe Routes to School for their support of this programming.