A new roadshow focused on farm safety hopes to inspire a new generation of rural kids to look at health and safety with ‘open eyes, not an eye roll and a sigh’.
Members of our Aoraki team joined dozens of other partner agencies and organisations last month for Think Safe Brain, a farm safety day for local tamariki and their families.
Fairlie Primary School hosted the event and welcomed students from surrounding MacKenzie area primary schools.
Sergeant Cam McBride said it was a great day with lots of hands-on learning opportunities.
“The children took part in 11 different modules throughout the day, including gun, fire and power line safety, as well as farm machinery and chemicals,” Cam says.
“At lunchtime they were treated to a display by the Fairlie Volunteer Fire Brigade, who demonstrated what happens when they have to cut people out of a car.”
Constable Kiha Rigby and Arms Officer John Wainwright delivered a firearm safety module, Senior Constable Deb Quested covered road safety and Sergeant Dave Hinde and Senior Constable Russell Halkett helped with an obstacle course, where the kids climbed through a police car as a part of the course.
Think Safe Brain is a farm safety roadshow designed for rural kids by Harriet Bremner, a children’s book author and rural health safety advocate. Harriet was widowed five years ago, at the age of 28, when her husband was tragically killed in a farm accident. Since then she has written a series of children’s books and hosted a wide range of events all with the aim of changing attitudes towards health and safety, particularly in a rural setting.