Led by conservation officers of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, fifth-graders from Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley school districts head to their individualized sessions after the introductory plenary session. (Photos by Ray Balogh

MILFORD — About 1,600 fifth-graders swarmed the confines of TruHorizons in Milford for the first Safety First days, a three-day event designed to teach safety on half a dozen topics.

Twenty-seven tents were set up on the grounds, two large tents for the beginning and ending plenary sessions and lunch, and five villages of five tents, each housing a different safety topic: first aid, lawn mower safety, water safety, disability awareness and grain bin safety.

The keynote session involved a live line demonstration, teaching the children how to avoid dangerous electrical power lines.

Friday, four school districts from Kosciusko, Elkhart and Fulton counties were represented at the event which took place Sept. 9-11. The fifth-graders were escorted between sessions by FFA members from the districts’ high schools.

Tippecanoe Valley junior Abbi Miller snaps a photo for her school’s newspaper.

All the elementary students received a fluorescent yellow safety T-shirt; the FFA volunteers received orange shirts.

Jim Wolf, agronomy sales manager for TruHorizons, said the event went off “better than we thought.”

He said the organizers hope to make Safety First days an annual event. “This was our pilot project,” said Wolf, who co-chairs the organizing committee with TruHorizons colleague Carolyn Seibert.

The committee was formed in April and solicited advice from FFA and school administrators to select the topics and the grade to be invited.

“We looked at fourth, fifth and sixth grade age,” he said. “We felt students in fourth grade were still trying to figure out life and sixth-graders have more confidence in themselves. We thought fifth grade was the most impressionable.”

The topics were also carefully chosen. “We looked for a way to provide a community service through the most applicable safety messages,” said Wolf. “We looked for ways to get this accomplished and considered our limits. We looked at a whole host of topics and all agreed the best student impact were on these topics.

“The students are starting to cut grass, spending time with friends at the lake and have a better understanding of people with disabilities and reach out when they are in public.

“Not all the kids are farm students, but a lot of students have friends on farms. During harvest a lot of wagons are sitting on the road, and we wanted to send the message not to play on them.”

Wearing a zebra armband to identify her class, Wawasee sophomore Gynnae Hochstetler awaits the end of class so she can escort her charges to the next station.

The organizers intended the learning to be carried on beyond the event. “A lot of our goal is for the student take a safety message home to the family,” Wolf said.

In addition, “one of the key parts at end of the day was the curriculum package for the teachers. We had to speak to the schools about their standards for social studies and physical education and crafted the event to meet those standards.”

Each student received a “goodie bag” containing first aid items, ear plugs, band-aids, hand sanitizer and other safety items. “We included a lot of different applicable items on the topics they learned about” during Safety First days, said Wolf.

The event had 20 corporate sponsors and approximately 70 volunteers worked each day.

“I can’t thank the sponsors and the volunteers enough for coming around this event and making it the success it is,” Wolf said. “We could not do it alone. We are very thankful.”