SAFE KIDS WASHOE COUNTY NEWS RELEASE – Safe Kids Washoe County has announced that Saturday, May 18, will be Safe Kids Day in northern Nevada – a day to help raise awareness and funds for Safe Kids’ efforts to prevent injuries to children. In honor of Safe Kids Day, Safe Kids Washoe County is accepting donations from the community to support local injury prevention programs to decrease unintentional childhood injuries. Donations are accepted online here.
“Donations will be put to work immediately to protect kids through research, education and awareness about child injury prevention,” said Melissa Krall, Safe Kids Washoe County coordinator. “Proceeds from Safe Kids Day support the injury prevention efforts of Safe Kids Washoe County enabling our team to reach more families with life-saving prevention information, expand existing programs and launch new programs to protect kids in our community.”
Injuries are the number one killer of kids in the United States, and 9,000 families lose a child every year to a preventable injury. That’s one family every hour. When a child dies or is seriously injured the lives of families and entire communities are changed forever. But, the majority of these injuries are completely preventable.
In partnership with Children’s Tylenol and through support from the GM Foundation and Wells Fargo, Safe Kids Day will be celebrated in more than 100 communities across the United States and focus on celebrating kids and helping families learn simple things they can do to protect children everywhere.
Safe Kids Day raises awareness about injury prevention, educates parents and caregivers on proven and practical things they can do to protect their children and raises funds to protect all children from life-changing or fatal injuries. Safe Kids works to keep kids safe at home, at play and on the road, for example:
- Protecting children in and around cars. Each year, Safe Kids hosts more than 8,000 car seat check-up events across the United States and our certified technicians install tens of thousands of car seats to keep kids safe.
- Protecting child athletes. Safe Kids clinics teach coaches, parents and young athletes how to avoid concussions and other serious sports injuries.
- Protecting children walking to school. Safe Kids works with local communities to make neighborhoods safer with improvements like speed bumps and cross walks, and with education programs for kids.
As part of Safe Kids Day, Safe Kids Washoe County is partnering with Immunize Nevada, Virginia Palmer Elementary School, Rotary Club of Reno Sunrise and the Sun Valley Family Resource Center to host the annual Give Kids A Boost Health and Safety Fair on May 18 from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at the Sun Valley Neighborhood Center, 115 West 6th Ave. in Sun Valley. The event will provide local families the opportunity to participate in hands-on health, safety and educational activities offered by more than 30 community organizations. Give Kids a Boost event will also provide free immunizations available through the Washoe County Health District. Booster seats from REMSA’s Point of Impact program will also available with other safety gear from Safe Kids Washoe County.
Safe Kids Washoe County works to prevent unintentional childhood injury, the leading cause of death and disability to children ages 1 to 14. Safe Kids Washoe County is a member of Safe Kids Worldwide, a global network of organizations dedicated to preventing unintentional injury. Safe Kids Washoe County was founded in 2000 and is led by REMSA.