05/20/05 Teaching kids about farm safety

Its farm safety day near Nez Perce where the city kids are learning about farm safety. The images they get this day are graphic from the bucket on a front loader smashing a watermelon to a dummy caught in a tractor shaft. Nurse and paramedic Shari Kuther says the kids need to learn that wearing the wrong clothing on a farm can be dangerous. KUTHER "I just was at a meeting down in south Idaho and a city kid had come out to the farm and had worn a long coat and he had stepped directly over the PTO and was caught in it. And so city kids need to know the message just as well as the farm kids." Kuther and the 50 volunteers share a common goal. KUTHER "If we save one finger then all of our work has been worth it." Studies also show farm kids are out in the sun more than the city children. Cara Uhlenkott helped the kids in a workshop where they made beaded bracelets that can warn them of harmful UV rays. UHLENKOTT "They change colors and if they change color you have to put sunscreen on. Kids just love to run out and play in the sun and have a good time and the least of their worries is putting on a little sun screen." So did these grade schoolers learn anything about farm safety? CHILD "We have to stay away from tractors." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott