BROOKVILLE — “Eat the hotdog” was chanted by second-graders after Unilec employees demonstrated the effects of an electrical burn during the annual Safety Day program.
Approximately 325 students from four schools in Jefferson County — Pinecreek Elementary in Brookville, C.G. Johnson in Reynoldsville, Ss. Cosmas & Damian School and Punxsutawney Area Elementary School — attended this year’s event, which was marked with special ceremonies recognizing the 25th anniversary of the Safety Day program.
Amanda Kanouff, 4-H educator, welcomed the youngsters and introduced county commissioners Jeff Pisarcik, Herb Bullers and Scott North; Penny Pifer, representing Sen. Cris Dush; and Lauren Adair and Deb Morris, representing Seneca Resources Company.
“It’s incredible to be celebrating 25 years of safety lessons to our local youth. To date we have reached approximately 7,770 youth with potentially life-saving safety lessons!” she said.
Following opening ceremonies a demonstration was given by employees of Unilec. Billy Parker described what what happening as Dan Marshall and Jason Duttry demonstrated what happens when branches or limbs, birds and other objects fall on electric wires. A final demonstration was holding a hotdog to a live wire for a few seconds, showing how quickly it was burned. As he showed the burned hotdog to the students he said, “Electricity burns you from the inside out,” breaking the hotdog in half to show what he meant. The children then challenged him to “eat the hotdog, which he declined. Instead he talked to them about the speed of electricity, saying it “travels about 186,000 miles, or more than five times around the world per second.”
Students then visited stations dealing with everything from safely casting a fishing line to standing up to bullies to being able to tell the difference between candies and medicines.
Presenting this year’s safety lessons were:
- 911 — Jefferson County EMS – Tracy Zents and Chris Clark.
- Hearing Safety — Mike Catanzarito of BC3 of Brockway.
- Bully Bingo — Community Action Crossroads Project with Sierra Horne, Tina Haskins and Rebecca Misko.
- Electrical Safety and opening demo –Billy Parker of United Electric, assisted by Dan Marshall and Jason Duttry.
- Personal Safety — PASSAGES, Inc., presented by Alaina Shaffer and Gina Lutz.
- Poison Lookalikes/Household Hazards — Susan Alexander.
- Firearms Safety — Sean Later from the PA Game Commission.
- Bike Safety/PennDOT truck tour/Pedestrian Safety — Tina Gill of PennDOT.
- Lyme Disease — PA Department of Health, Lisa Snyder and Jan Anderson.
- Poisonous Plants –Jefferson County Conservation District employee Megan Whitlatch, ACT/nutrient management specialist.
- Fishing Safety — Jefferson County Conservation District watershed specialist Evan DeLong.
- Wildlife/Outdoors Safety — Penn State DuBois Wildlife Program by Keely Roen and Austin Swanson.
- Handwashing — Rick Kralj, food safety educator for Penn State Extension.
- Barn Animal Safety — Brockway FFA members Kyle Norman, Delayne Fremer, Eric Mowrey and Mayson Fremer. They were accompanied by their teacher, Kyle Norman, and Bindy, an Australian cattle dog.
Kanouff said her “absolute favorite part of Safety Day is the excitement and enthusiasm the kids have for learning something new, and hearing later how they shared what they learned with family and friends.”
She thanked everyone who “helped make this year’s program a success. I sincerely appreciate all of the continued support from our sponsors and community partners, and especially the Safety Day Planning Committee and presenters. We couldn’t do it without you!”
