American Red Cross, PPL Partnership Brings
First-Aid, Electrical Safety Education to Area Third-Grade Students
News Release: November 13, 2000
Contact: Janice Osborne, Manager-Media & Community Affairs
(610) 865-4400, ext. 262
This month, critters like First Aid Fox and Sammy Safety are marching into area third-grade classes to introduce students to first aid and electrical safety -- thanks to a unique partnership between the Lehigh Valley American Red Cross and PPL Corp.
Red Cross-trained PPL employee volunteers are teaching a one-hour lesson entitled "First Aid for You" from the First Aid for Children Today program, a Red Cross health promotion and injury prevention program for children in grades 2-3. The lesson introduces the concept that injuries can be prevented and teaches children basic first aid when injuries do happen. Children also learn the Emergency Action Plan - a set of rules to help them correctly respond to emergencies.
In addition, children learn about electrical safety through PPL-developed material.
More than 500 students at Central, Cleveland, Lehigh Parkway and Moser elementary schools in Allentown and Spring Garden Elementary School in Bethlehem will participate.
The idea for the program sprouted at the Red Cross as part of the United Way Day of Caring in September when businesses across the Lehigh Valley gave employees a day off to lend a hand in community agencies.
"For the Day of Caring at Red Cross, we normally ask employees to do activities like landscaping, painting or making crafts," John Hughes, executive director at the Lehigh Valley Red Cross, said. "However, this year, we approached it differently and thought: how can we as a United Way-funded agency partner with a corporation and the educational community to get our Red Cross health and safety message out to youngsters?" The answer was a pilot program where Red Cross professionals would lead corporate employees through the fundamentals of how to teach a Red Cross health and safety lesson and then ask the employees to take the lesson into the classrooms.
The project caught the eye of PPL when it was searching for a United Way Day of Caring project. "It was a perfect match for PPL and its business-education partnership schools in Allentown," said John F. Sipics, vice president-Regulatory Support for PPL Utilities who is this year's United Way Campaign chairperson at PPL. "More than 100 employee volunteers already spend an hour a week in the classroom tutoring, reading to or mentoring students in the Allentown School District. Going into the classroom to teach first aid and electrical safety was a natural fit."
During the United Way Day of Caring last September, 27 PPL employee volunteers spent the day at the Red Cross office learning about the organization, touring the facilities, being trained to teach the health and safety program and practice-teaching. Experienced Red Cross staff led employees through the fundamentals of Red Cross instructor training and the responsibilities of representing the Red Cross. A PPL safety representative reviewed electrical safety materials with employees.
The Red Cross is providing all materials for the first-aid lesson - including instructor manuals, posters, activities and other resources.
For more information about the American Red Cross First Aid for Children Today program or other Red Cross health and safety services and programs, call (610) 865-4400 or visit us on the Web at www.redcrosslv.org.
The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization, led by volunteers, that provides relief to victims of disasters and helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies.
The Lehigh Valley Red Cross serves more than 620,000 residents in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Last year the Red Cross provided health and safety education training and emergency relief services to nearly 15,500 Lehigh Valley residents.
