They enrolled him
in Safe Kids Boot Camp, a full-day, week-long camp that teaches
campers about safety through interactive games, activities, videos
and speakers. The camp is put on every summer by Safe Kids
Springfield, which has offices in the Trauma Services department at
St. John’s.
“I learned about how important it is to wear a helmet and other gear
when riding my bike and scooter,” Grant says. “All of the campers
got fitted with their own helmet to take home with them at the end
of camp.”
What Grant learned at camp stuck with him. A year later, while
camping with his mom, dad and little brother Tyler, Grant was riding
his scooter down a steep hill and around a curve. His brakes failed,
so he jumped off the scooter to avoid crashing into a tree.
“He fractured his left arm, which ended his baseball season that
year, hurt his jaw and had lots of bruises, scrapes and scratches,”
says his mom, Cheryl. “But even though he hit his head pretty hard,
the helmet protected him from having more serious injuries.”
“I was really glad I was wearing my helmet,” Grant adds. “I busted
the visor part of it and there were rocks stuck in it where I hit.”
Grant and his parents acknowledge that his injuries could have been
much worse if he had not been wearing his helmet.
Tyler, who is 8, is already signed up for this summer’s Safe Kids
Boot Camp and looks forward to learning more about preventing
injury.
About Safe Kids Springfield
Safe Kids Springfield focuses on child passenger safety,
bike/pedestrian safety, fire prevention, sports safety, water safety
and other unintentional injury prevention programs for children and
families.
“It’s a privilege to work to protect the children in the Ozarks by
educating parents and caregivers about how to prevent accidental
injury to their children,” says Daphne Greenlee, coalition
coordinator of Safe Kids Springfield. “The partnership with St.
John’s as our lead agency has been invaluable to our success,” she
adds, “allowing us to reach families in a variety of settings with
important safety messages.” For more information, please visit
www.safekidsspringfield.org.