Students learn how to use a fire extinguisher at Progressive Ag Safety Day in Nipawin. (Alice McFarlane/farmnewNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Safety

Hands on safety day for area students

May 8, 2019 | 2:10 PM

Students from across northeast Saskatchewan took part in a fun day of events focusing on farm and urban safety yesterday, May 7 at the Nipawin Evergreen Centre.

Progressive Agriculture Safety Day explained some of the hazards students can be exposed to on a day-to-day basis from walking to school, playing in the backyard and around the farm yard.

Bunge Nipawin brought the event to the community for the first time last year. Jim Harper is the safety co-ordinator with Bunge and co-ordinated the event with Rachel Young.

Students learn about farm safety in Nipawin.

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Harper said they felt it was an important message to share with students from grades four to seven.

“We’d experienced some accidents and incidents and even fatalities in nearby communities that involved students,” Harper said. “Bunge was a big sponsor of the Progressive Ag Safety organization in the U.S., so we decided to get on the bandwagon to promote safety especially in urban areas and on the farm.”

Harper and Young received their training last fall at a one day event sponsored by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association. The format was the same as last year with each group of students visiting a station for eight to 10 minutes then proceeding to the next station.

He said they wanted to cover a number of topics at the 23 stations lead by various groups including RCMP, Sask. Environment, North East EMS, Public Health, War Amps, Sun Smart Sask. and Cervus Equipment John Deere, just to name a few.

“At the Nipawin Fire safety trailer they talked about the hazards around the household and cooking hazards as well as fire simulators,” Harper said. “Canadian Pacific Police focused on railroad safety. There was also a session on the safe handling of firearms.”

Firearm safety at Progressive Ag Safety Day

Harper said the goal is have the students thinking about everyday activities and the decisions that are made.

“It’s surprising how many hazards there are and you’re exposed to them on a daily basis.” Harper said. “You step out on to the street, you run out after your ball or some toy and all of a sudden there’s a vehicle there. The smaller and shorter you are the larger the blind spot is. Kids are hard to see around vehicles.”

RCMP rollover simulator

With an eye to next year, Harper said they’re already planning to expand the event.

“Sounds like we’re going to be looking at another 120 students. We’ll be changing the format a little more. This year we had three returning presentations. We try to change it up a bit and not have the same thing every year. The kids are having a good time.” Harper said.

Roughly 430 students from Star City Colony, Choiceland, White Fox, Arborfield, Zenon Park, Gronlid and Wagner School in Nipawin attended the event with close to 40 volunteers helping out.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF