Winter Newsletter Edition - 2023

There are certain dangers that are more common during the cold weather months. Learn to recognize these issues and help prevent problems from occurring in your home this season.

Fireplace Safety

When enjoying your fireplace, safety is a must! It is important to remember these basic safety precautions:

• Never leave a young child alone near a fireplace; they can be burned before, during and after use of the fireplace.

• Use a fireplace safety fence and create a barrier around the fireplace to keep your child at a safe distance at all times. Safety gates in doorways can keep your child from being in the room alone.

• Fireplace glass and other surfaces get extremely hot and can cause burns if touched. Consider purchasing a safety attachment designed to disperse heat from the fireplace doors.

Cooking brings family and friends together, provides an outlet for creativity and can be relaxing. But did you know that cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and home injuries? By following a few safety tips you can prevent these fires.

Source: National Fire Prevention Association

Cooking and Kids

Have a “kid-free zone” of at least 3 feet around the stove and areas where hot food or drink is prepared or carried. Make your own kid-free zone marker!

Source: National Fire Prevention Association

Holiday Decorating

Decorating your home can be one of the ways to get into the holiday spirit. However, it is important to make sure your decorations are safe and properly put up to avoid injuries to your family this holiday season. Follow these tips.

Ryan's Story - Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

It was a typical weekday morning in March of 2016 when my wife and I woke up to our alarms to get ready for work. I woke up with a slight headache, nothing that would cause concern, but my wife was complaining that she did not feel well either. We both went into the bathroom to get ready and my wife was feeling worse by the minute. I got into the shower and, unbeknownst to both of us, the boiler was exhausting carbon monoxide into our basement and it was working its way upstairs.

Did you know that there are over 50 million (yes, you heard that right - 50 MILLION) vehicles on our US roadways that have some type of recall on them. While some recalls may be minor, others can be because of significant safety issues. These recalls are fixed by the manufacturer FREE OF CHARGE.

To find out if your vehicle is impacted by one of these recalls, visit https://checktoprotect.org/ It is quick and easy to find out and determine what fix needs to take place to repair the defect. Log on and check today!!

Medicine Safety While Traveling - Holiday Edition

During the holiday season, many families travel to spend time with loved ones or enjoy a winter getaway.

Regardless of whether you are staying with family or at a hotel, when you are not at home it can be harder to follow usual safe storage practices.

Here are a few tips to help keep your medicines safe and out of the hands of curious young children.

Let’s talk about the ways kids get to school!

Our Safety Around School (SAS) Presentations educate kids about pedestrian, bike, motor vehicle and bus safety. Every school that takes part in this experience rotates students through 5 stations throughout the day.

This program, which has been offered for many years, has really been a huge help to some of our MN schools.

New legislation this year requires all students in Minnesota, Kindergarten through 8th grade, receive active transportation education within the first three weeks of school.

We held SAS days at New Heights and South Point in East Grand Forks, Highland, Washington, and Crookston Middle School in Crookston, Fisher Public School, Menagha Elementary, and Challenger Elementary School in Thief River Falls.

Safety on Wheels in Grand Forks

This September, we hosted Safety on Wheels (SOW) programming for 3rd graders at all 11 Grand Forks Public Schools. The students learned about how a helmet protects their brain, they discussed how to choose the right helmet for the type of wheeled sport they do, and they got tips on how to properly fit a helmet.

Part of the visit is offering helmet sales to each and every child at those schools. Through our Fall SOW programming, we distributed 211 helmets. Once our presentations took place, our partners with the Grand Forks Optimist Club visited the 3rd graders to share bike safety education and hosted bike rodeos at the schools. The kids learned hand signals, bike maintenance tips and they rode through an obstacle course.

Photo: Optimist Members hosting Bike Rodeo at J. Nelson Kelly Elementary

Child Passenger Safety & Fire Safety Event

October is National Fire Prevention Month, celebrated all over the country around the time of the Great Chicago Fire. Safe Kids Grand Forks was pleased to partner with the Randy Fenley State Farm Agency in Grand Forks to host the Grand Forks Fire Department for a safety event on October 11. The event featured a fire engine and Sparky the Fire Dog, along with a fire safety booth manned by a UND Nursing student. Barkley, a pet therapy dog belonging to Nicole Weber, was also there to hand out fire safety activity books to the kids in attendance. Besides education on fire safety, we hosted a table with safe sleep education manned by MSUM nursing student, Sonia and a Halloween safety table hosted by UND Public Health Student, Sessi.

The Safe Kids Coalitions in ND offer these gun safety reminders during hunting season.

We need to take extra precautions when kids are in an environment where guns are present.

It is estimated that about one third of households with children ages 17 and under have a gun in the home.

Share these tips with family and friends.

Free gun locks are available at Safe Kids Grand Forks and Grand Forks County Sheriff's Department. We thank them for their generous support of this distribution.

From Our Partners

Safe Kids Grand Forks | safekids@altru.org | 701.780.1489 | safekidsgf.com

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