One hundred kids from all over the local area engaged in activities and sessions at Becker Public Schools as part of the annual Safety Camp event Friday.
Xcel Energy’s Erika Fink gave a demonstration focusing on electric safety. She had a diorama laid out on a table featuring a barn, a road with a school bus on it, a typical electrical box on the side of a road and other structures including telephone lines and poles panning the length of the display.
Fink warned the kids of the dangers of coming in contact with electrical components and she used a stick to move a doll into the electrical box and touched it. A visual spark occurred and a loud snap.
Fink explained electricity travels from the sky to the ground and when lightning strikes, the lightning is looking for the best path to the ground. Since water is a conductor and humans are made up of mostly water, the human body is a good transmitter of that energy, so she warned of being out during storms.
Fink also talked about being safe around gas and warned kids to never dig in their yards until a utility person locates underground power lines and marks them with flags.
In another room, two boys — Hayden and Wesley — from Troop 29 of the local boy scouts, spoke to the kids about safety while camping and hiking. The boys brought along items they advised people to bring with them when camping including a bottle of water, food items, a tent, a flashlight, a sleeping bag and pillow, mosquito netting, sunscreen, bug spray, matches and a hat, amongst others.
The boys fielded questions from the visitors who asked about what to do if one gets lost and what to do when one encounters a bear in the woods.
Troy Morrell and his daughter Jenn of Morrellies Lawn & Snow taught kids about being safe around lawn and garden tools and machines. Troy invited Mayor Tracy Bertram up to the front to help with the demonstration and he and Jenna donned Bertram with a helmet, goggles, gloves, a vest and chaps while she posed with a chainsaw.
Moments later, Troy illustrated the effects of a weed whipper when in came in contact with a cardboard box. The kids were amazed.
Katrina Brown of Becker Schools gave a fitness awareness seminar and Tom Cahill with Archery Country gave a demonstration on Archery safety. Rachel Humphrey with the St. Cloud State University weather department gave a talk on weather awareness and safety.
The final presentation of the day came as all the groups of kids gathered outdoors as the firefighters from BFD demonstrated an extrication of a crash victim in a demolished car.
The day included many volunteers (35) who sacrificed time out of their day to chaperone the kids and participate in sessions. Participants got a Safety Camp T-shirt and enjoyed cookie and snack breaks. Pizza towards the end was served by volunteers from Oakwood Community Church.
Grab bags were handed out to the children which included many items donated by many different organizations. One of the main focuses of this year’s event was camping so the main gift in the grab bag was a two- person tent, donated by the Clear Lake Lions. The kids also were given compass/whistles, thermal blankets, jump ropes, Frisbees, cups, Tootsie Rolls, suckers and many pamphlets relating to the topics that were taught.
Many hours of planning goes into making each year’s Safety Camp successful and different. Students can participate for three years, so the planning committee tries to make the camps different each three years and then start over with some demonstrations from years past.
The Safety Camp committee consists of Michelle Peacock with Becker Community Ed; Rob Olson with Becker Baptist Church; Ron Kortz and Kevin Drehmel with the Becker Fire Dept,; Karen Van Dyke; Mayor Tracy Bertram; Police Chief Brent Baloun and BPD Secretary June Hubbard.
Shortly after the camp, the committee meets and starts the planning for the 2018 Safety Camp. Hubbard says the committee always appreciates hearing comments (pros and cons) as to how to improve the annual camp experience.
