(Blog contribution by AT student, Jon Price)
Several student from the Sports Medicine and Athletic Training (SMAT) department volunteered their time a few weeks ago at Safe Kids Springfield. Safe Kids Springfield is a program designed to prevent accidental injuries to children through education, research, advocacy, environmental programs, safety device distribution and public awareness programs. The SMAT students collaborated with Daphne Greenlee, a coordinator from Mercy hospital’s – Mercy Injury Prevention Center to participate in this program. Each AT student had a separate station and the kids would come through in groups, so they had about 15 minutes to tell them about their specific demonstration. The goal of all of this was to teach the kids a basic understanding of common injuries and methods of injury prevention. Things covered included everything from proper hydration, demonstrating CPR, to head injuries. Student Jon Price states “the kids all seemed interested and had a lot of fun interacting with the demonstrations too”. For more information on the Safe Kids Springfield program, visit www.safekidsspringfield.org.