Workplace NB’s Progressive Agriculture Safety Day is teaching young students how to be safe around farming equipment and in various other situations they might encounter as they grow up.
This year marked the 10th year the organization held the event in Florencville-Bristol.
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More than 450 Grade 5 students attended throughout the day where they got the chance to sit in tractors, interact with different types of equipment and learn how to be safe around them.
“Our motto is start early,” said Lisa Waugh, Workplace NB’s education consultant.
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“The earlier we can start to train and educate individuals and children here today, the more they’ll remember and carry on through their lives.”
Although farming equipment is the dominant part of the day other, booths focused on things like ATV safety, fire prevention and a car rollover simulator.
“Not all children in our schools are exposed to agriculture or farms,” explained Waugh.
Volunteer Kaleb Lawrence remembers attending the event seven years ago when he was in Grade 5.
Several years later he found himself working on a farm and says much of what he was taught stuck with him when he started farming.
“One slip of anything and you could be possibly hurt seriously,” he said.
Lawrence hopes some of the kids attending this year will do the same, and believes the program to be a very worthwhile use of the students’ time.
“This is a good learning spot for young kids that may possibly work in agriculture,” he said.
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