TUGASKE, Sask. – Neil Zoerb dangles the sleeve over the power take-off, letting the pto grab it, swing it around wildly and fling it into a student standing nearby.
It’s a powerful message to the children attending the Progressive Agriculture Farm Safety Camp about what can happen if they get too close to farm equipment.
And at least two students mention people they know who got caught in a pto.
Zoerb said farming is the most dangerous occupation with the least amount of safety training.
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“If at the elementary school age they could be exposed to this a couple of times, I think it would have a great effect,” said Zoerb, who works for Davidson Equipment in Davidson, Sask., and built the demonstration device.
Even adults tell him the demonstration shocks them in its violence and intensity.
Inside the nearby community hall, one display includes a map of Saskatchewan covered with shiny hearts. Each heart represents someone killed in a farm accident. That, too, is shocking.
Kathy Russell, the safety camp co-ordinator, would like to see those fatalities, and the numbers injured, drop.
She organized the camp after taking a two-day training course in Winnipeg and convincing the local library board and sponsors to take on the camp as a project.
At Eyebrow School, the Agriculture 20 class got involved. The students researched and produced several of the stations, including grain, sun and ATV safety, and were marked on their projects.
About 125 Kindergarten to Grade 6 students from schools at Eyebrow, Mortlach and Central Butte attended the camp.
“We’re all somehow tied to agriculture,” Russell said. “Farm and ranch safety should be front and centre with us.”
Shyanne Stoian was talking to the students about electrical safety. She is a member of Power Pac, a team of youth ambassadors who talk to other students about safety.
The Grade 9 student at Mossbank School said her parents are “big on safety.” Part of that stems from an accident her brother Codie had when he was a toddler. He lost his hand in a meat grinder.
“I see what happened to my brother every day,” she said. “I want to be out here (talking to students) as much as possible.”
Russell said she’d be happy to help another community host a farm safety camp.
“We need to get the word out there,” she said.
