Staying Safe During Back to School Season

As summer comes to an end and parents prepare their children for another school year, there are important topics to address aside from which school supplies and clothes to purchase. Discussing safe practices for back to school should be high on the list, and can make all the difference in determining your child’s well being. While the “when I was your age, I had to walk 4 miles, uphill, both ways, in the snow to get to school” joke may be out dated, many children still walk, bus, bike ride or car pool to and from school every day. It is a parent’s worst nightmare to imagine anything ever happening to their child, so it is wise to take precautions so accidents can be avoided.

The International Walk to School Month is an initiative to celebrate the benefits of walking and it’s only a month away. This means more children walking, rather than taking the bus, biking, or catching rides to and from school. No matter how your child commutes to school, the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago offers safety tips and steps parents and children can take to make this back to school season safer.

Tips for Pedestrians
• Never walk alone – always travel with a buddy.
• Pay attention to all traffic signals and crossing guards along the way.
• Never cross the street against a stop light.
• Be cautious of who is around you – never talk to strangers.

Tips for Bike Riders
• Avoid ill-fitting clothing that could get caught in spokes, pedals or restrict movement.
• Wear reflective colors and material to be more visible to street traffic.
• Always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle.
• Walk your bicycle across all intersections.

Tips for School Bus Riders
• Line up facing the bus, not along side it.
• Never reach under the school bus to get anything that has rolled or fallen beneath it. The bus driver may be sitting too high up to see you.
• After getting off the bus, move immediately onto the sidewalk and out of traffic. If there is no sidewalk, try to stay as far to the side of the road as possible.
• Wait for a signal from the bus driver before crossing the street. Walk at least 10 steps away from the front of the bus so the driver can see you.

It is vital to sit down with your child to discuss safety tips for a stress-free commute to school. Knowing how to prevent unexpected emergencies is the first step in ensuring a great and successful school year. Check out the American Red Cross commuter safety tips for more information. Happy back to school!


Written by: Hannah Segall, Marketing and Communications Intern

Photo courtesy of Visual Photos

Red Cross Presents Kid Safety Zone

Check out the video below:




"What are some road safety rules?” asked Katie, an AmeriCorps Safe Family Member. “Wear a helmet, make sure you have a night light on your bike, and stay on the right side of the road,” yelled a student. Wow these students really know a lot about road safety. From hearing that first kid’s response at the Kids Safety Zone showed me I would be shocked more about what other students already knew.

I knew the load of information Red Cross AmeriCorps Safe Family members were going to share that day would never be forgotten.

As we pulled up to the elementary school with the AmeriCorps team and I walked through the halls, we entered into a room that the team set up for kindergarteners through sixth graders. The team was setting up five different stations for the AmeriCorps service project: Kids Safety Zone.

Having the group of kids rotate to each station, I knew it would be interesting to watch. AmeriCorps set up stations so all the kids could get a hands-on interactive experience and learn helpful information all at once. From 9a.m. to 2:15p.m. the students’ excitement and thrill to learn more never faded away.
Students waved their hands frantically to answer a question or to volunteer in acting out a scenario. They bounced from table to table and interacted the entire seven minutes they had at each station. I tried to figure out how learning could be so fun and then a light bulb clicked in my head: interact and engage the students and you cannot go wrong with teaching.

The five stations the students rotated to throughout the day were healthy living, stranger danger, first aid for you, road safety, and home safety. At the “health living” station one of the members discussed having a proper diet, knowing the proper techniques for chocking, and what it means to wash your hands thoroughly. The members at the “stranger danger” station taught how you should communicate with strangers (what to say and what not to say). At the “first aid for you” station how to control bleeding, what’s an emergency, calling 911, and an emergency action plan was taught. At the “road safety” station the AmeriCorps team member talked about how one stays safe when riding a bike or walking. The last station was about how to stay safe in your own home based on having fire alarms and avoiding dangerous fires in the house with electrical appliances and outlets.

Overall the students enjoyed themselves with the interactive stations. They were able to interact and learn about safety and healthy tips. AmeriCorps members also took a lot from teaching a wide age range of students because the members had to change how they presented the information every time groups rotated. Before each class left the room the teachers were given FACT (First Aid for Children Today) booklets to pass out to their students.

This event also showed me that elementary students will take away a lot from what they learn if you make it engaging and relate the activities to them so they can make connections of what they’re learning.

To learn more about the Red Cross AmeriCorps program or to join the team visit this link: http://bit.ly/nG0ydw.

Story and Video Written By: Rachel Moten

Se Habla Espanol?

Early Monday morning the Chicago DAT team responded to a unique two-alarm fire on the southside of Chicago.

The fire spread to five different buildings on the block, leaving three destroyed and two others in questionable condition. As our responders arrived on scene they were confronted by more than the usual difficulties of a large scale incident, the household members were Spanish speaking.

Here is a link to the article published in the Chicago Tribune about the incident:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-south-lawndale-fireapr06,0,2950642.story

Chicago is one of the more diverse cities in the United States, so language problems are not an unusual occurence when responding. Thankfully, we have found a few different ways to make the language barrier a non-issue when trying to help those in need. We have quite a few volunteers/DAT responders who can faciliate our services in multiple languages, and even more that have a working knowledge of a different tongue. Also, we have found that there are quite a few bi-lingual police officers working for the Chicago PD that are more than happy to lend a hand when on scene. Communities members, such as neighbors, have also been able to assist as translators.

BUT we could always use more!

Although Spanish is the most prevelant second language, it is not the only other one spoken in Chicago. We encounter many different languages while responding to incidents.

If you are reading this and know a second language help us avoid being lost in translation, come help!

During this specific incident we were able to send one of our volunteers who is fluent in Spanish to the scene, drastically improving our ability to help. When it was all finished we were able to service 29 people!

Be safe everyone,

Lily and Sam

Thanksgiving for the Red Cross

Yes! We should all be thankful for the Red Cross--just like fire fighters, we are rescuing people all the time. Yes, we rescue them from facing nowhere to lie down in safety after a fire or any other disaster, small and large. We just don't stop, ever.

Why am I thankful, personally?

After my first house fire, I stood alongside a family in the frigid night, all and kids in pajamas, helpless as their second story apartment smoldered. They lost everything, but their skins. There were hundreds more over the years. I went to wildfires where only the nails remained. To hurricanes where families continued to live in the smashed up hulls of their trailer homes. And what have I learned? Don't fuss over what you have, care about what you give.

It's the little ways in which I've changed which mean big things in my life. I went through four years living in San Francisco with three pieces of furniture. When I moved back to Chicago, my parents felt sorry for me and donated some of theirs. I never missed the furniture. It really doesn't matter. Through my Red Cross lens, I saw this all being gone in an instant.

Tomorrow and always, I give thanks for the privilege I have to help other people every day. And to know that my life is richer because of the Red Cross, even though, I'm back to having no furniture:)