Fourteen students gave up a rare “free” Saturday recently to help make Arkansas children safer. Every year Arkansas SAFE KIDS has a safety day in which booths are set up to teach children about safety in a variety of settings. Fire safety (smoke house), water safety (the children are given life jackets), poisons, bicycle safety, etc. are among the subjects covered. This event was held at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library. Children attending the event visit all the other booths, receive stickers on their card, and then turn in the card at the helmet booth to receive a free bicycle helmet.
The College of Nursing Student booth, the bicycle helmet booth, was set up in the parking lot of the library. Between 10:00 and 2:00 pm, these students helped almost 145 children select a helmet, that was then “fitted” on the child’s head, while teaching/talking about bicycle safety and wearing helmets. Students also discussed with parents a new recommendation regarding putting the bike helmets on during tornados. It takes time to do each individual child and that is why so many students are needed. Among those in attendance were library patrons and children who live in the neighborhood.
Our students worked almost non-stop. Some volunteered even though they did not need leadership service credit for the event. The Arkansas SAFE KIDS coalition, which runs this event, could not say enough about how much they appreciated the help of our College of Nursing students. Thank you, students!
The students were:Kalie Brannon, Traci Byrd, Courtney Carden, Wendy deLassus, Ashley Jones, Dannelle Lewis, Laila Litonjua, Eddie Myers, Angelique Rains, Aisha Rivera, Bushra Salamah, Becky Shook, Nysha Whorton, and Catherine Vanlandingham.