Farm Safety Day a yearly highlight for many area fourth-graders

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Hands were raised, questions were asked and lessons were learned at the Floyd County Fairgrounds on Thursday.

It was Farm Safety Day and that meant one thing for more than 200 area fourth-graders – field trip.

Local FFA members, law enforcement and emergency personnel were just some of the organizations that worked together to educate students about farm safety and being aware of everyday encounters that can help save a life.

Fourth-grade students from Charles City, Central Springs and RRMR attended the Farm Safety Day, which is sponsored by Progressive Agriculture and has been teaching kids since 1991.

Kids got the chance to visit 11 stations where instructors talked about topics ranging from what plants and insects to avoid when outdoors to life-saving measures that can be applied in an emergency situation.

Understanding the dangers of electricity and how to properly use an ATV or lawnmower were also addressed.

Bret Spurgin, Charles City’s FFA Advisor, said a team of FFA officers plans out the stations and coordinates the learning sessions each year.

Along the way, some preconceived notions about what farm life is like can also be changed.

“They may spend very little time ever on a farm, but they’re exposed to these things” on the field trip, Spurgin said. “You go on that tractor, it has all that GPS equipment. They’re able to see those types of things and understand that agriculture isn’t just sows, cows and plows.”

For many students, petting a sheep or a cow was a first-time experience.

Spurgin said students spend about 20 minutes at each station and also bring their own sack lunch. The day ended and students hopped back onto their school buses around 2 p.m after a 9 a.m. start.

Spurgin said it’s important for his FFA students to remember that they are role models and the young students will remember the field trip as a highlight of their childhood.

“I also think it’s great, obviously, for the high school kids to be able to have the interactions. I tell them that all the time — you may not think about it or understand it, but these kids look up to you,” said Spurgin.

“We had a meeting Tuesday with all the Charles City kids that are helping out. I said, ‘Raise your hand if you remember Farm Safety Day.’ Every single one of them raised their hand. If you had a positive experience, you want to make sure that we’re doing that for these guys.”

The Floyd County Sheriff’s Department, AMR ambulance, Butler County REC, Floyd County Emergency Management, Floyd County Ag and 4-H members and Greg Heidebrink, a forester for Floyd County Conservation and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, all provided information for the students.