On Sept. 29-30, 200 second-grade students and 20 teachers and assistants from Clearfield Area Elementary School, St. Francis School and West Branch Elementary took part in a Virtual Progressive Agriculture Safety Day in their classroom.
The back-to-back event allowed the opportunity for all students to participate, whether attending school fully in-person or via a hybrid model.
Jana Davidson, local Safety Day coordinator and education content specialist with the Progressive Agriculture Foundation, served as moderator and host for the virtual event.
“Although we had to break from tradition this year, I am delighted we were still able to reach children with these important safety and health messages,” stated Davidson.
“I informed the teachers early on that this year was all about flexibility and I would accommodate schedules to best meeting the needs of the schools, the students and the teachers.”
Since 2007, this event has taken place each fall at the Clearfield County Fairgrounds, reaching more than 4,700 students, teachers and volunteers locally in its 14-year history.
Traditionally, students have been bussed from their schools to take part in a one-day, hands-on educational program that is designed to be age-appropriate, fun, and above all, safe.
While at the event, volunteers from various local agencies and organizations serve as instructors and provide 15-minute lessons on specific safety- and health-related topics.
Along with their classroom, the students travel from station to station and take part in a fun, hands-on activities to reinforce the safety message.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on group gatherings, as well as ensuring the safety, health and well-being of all involved remains the number priority, this was not able to happen.
The 2020 topics for Virtual Safety Day included Electricity Safety, Chemical Safety (look-a-likes), Hearing Safety, Underground Utilities Safety (Call 811 Before you Dig), Tractor/Lawn Mower Safety, ATV/UTV Safety, Animal Safety and general agriculture safety (including Grain/Gravity Flow, Auger, and Power-Take-Off/PTO Safety).
Smaller transition topics focused on: Mental Well-Being & Stress Management, Bicycle Safety, and Sun/Heat Safety (including hydration, sunscreen, & personal protective equipment).
In addition to receiving two hours of safety education, each student received a certificate, T-shirt and take-home bag.
Davidson also noted, “the only disappointment was not getting to see in-person the smiling faces of the students and teachers and the community volunteers, who have been essential to the success of our program year after year.
“However, the students were still so engaged in their classrooms and we still had several local agencies donate items to the take-home bags.”
Progressive Agriculture Safety Days is recognized as the largest rural safety and health education program for children in North America reaching more than 1.8 million children and adults since 1995.
In addition to local support, the program is sponsored nationally by the following five-star and four-star partners: Bunge, Nutrien, TC Energy, CHS, John Deere, Farm Credit, Cargill, Enbridge, State Farm, Corteva and Polaris.
Local supporters included Penn State Extension in Clearfield County, Clearfield County Safe Kids Coalition, Buck’s Pizza of Clearfield, PASSAGES Inc., CNB Bank, Community Action Inc Crossroads Project, Clearfield Jefferson Drug & Alcohol Commission and United Electric Cooperative.
For more information on the Progressive Agriculture Safety Day program, visit www.progressiveag.org.