Joplin

The Army Corps of Engineers sent out a press release this morning regarding the work that is continuing in Joplin, Missouri. I noted one phrase they used in the release especially; the release stated that Joplin recovery was "evaporating" from the new coverage. This is true, just like the coverage of Tuscaloosa did. There comes a time after a disaster that the news crews move on. Sure, like the other day, Mike Bettes visited Joplin and did a "30 days later" special, adopted a dog from ASPCA and showed the continuing work, but today, Mike isn't there. And neither is anyone else. The country is moving on.

While I remember the advice of President Bush after 9-11 to "return to normal", there is another side of it as well. We cannot forget.

With heat indexes rising, resources still in short supply, news coverage spotty at best and years of work to be done, I am not content to simply watch Joplin's tragedy slip into the archives on some television station's website. During the intial phases after an event, the help is overwhelming. We watched truckloads of goods dropped in the city. We watched youth groups and church groups show up by the bus-loads. Red Cross trucks dotted the streets, The Salvation Army stopped regularly to check on our team. The military and law enforcement where everywhere, and any church with a roof had become a distribution center.

Now it is changing.

We are hearing from youth groups and churches planning missions trips for a year from now. Caylee Anthony fills the news. The weather, for the most part in the United States has been pleasant, and the July 4th weekend is quickly approaching.

Yesterday, a woman in Bloomington, Indiana was speaking to our team at an event and made this statement: "The tornado in Joplin was tragic!".

We corrected her.

The tornado in Joplin IS tragic. It will be tragic for a long time to come and we need to remember

.

You see, long after the debris falls to the ground, long after the streets dry, long after the tents are folded up, the tornado is still in the town spinning through the streets causing problems with recovery, with infrastructure, with emotions, with families, with health, with economy, with life.

That tornado will be churning through that town for years, and we need to think about what we can do. The initial campaign to volunteer or to give is over, but each hour we receive word that there are very real needs for crews, for specialists, for volunteers.

It is now that we can step up. The initial surge is over. It is time to start making longer-term commitments. If you can't go, GIVE. The Chasing4Life DRT's are ready to go back as are hundreds of others, but the funding to go just doesn't exist. Is this something you can help with?

Joplin is a community of Americans, just like you and me. They are our family and our neighbors.

This July 4th while we fly our flags over pristine porches and emerald green lawns, there are tattered flags flying over piles that were once the homes of the citizens of Joplin.

This 4th of July, don't celebrate freedom. Celebrate A freedom. Celebrate the specific freedom to support teams willing and ready and geared to go to Joplin. Celebrate the freedom to give. Celebrate the freedom to help. You have these freedoms.

This 4th of July, while you sit on a blanket with your family and watch the brightly colored fireworks over your town, remember the bright lights of bursting transformers lighting up the Joplin sky just over one month ago. Remember the families in Southern Missouri that are sitting on a blanket with THEIR families because that blanket is one of the few things they have left.

It may not be the headline news story, but it should still be the heartline story...

The Flooding Of Louisiana - Sophies Choice

From guest-blogger Dr. William H. Hooke, Ph.D.

The 1982 movie by this name may be unfamiliar to younger blog readers, but bears on events unfolding in Louisiana as this year’s Mississippi-River floodwaters continue to rise.

Here is the background.

First – the movie. Sophie’s Choice was a truly extraordinary film on every level. Based on a novel by William Styron, the picture won Meryl Streep an Academy Award for her performance in the title role and cemented her justly deserved reputation as one of the greatest actresses of any time.

The full story is complex and tragic; there is no way to do it justice in a few sentences. Here’s the bit that you and I need to know for today’s purposes. Sophie, living in post-World-War-II New York, is tormented by a decision she had been forced to make, on the fly, in a Nazi concentration camp, a few years earlier, during the war. A Nazi guard made her choose which of her two children would go to a children’s camp, and thereby have at least a chance to live; and which would go directly to the crematorium. The only alternative the Nazi offered? That both children could die, then and there. At the end, this memory helps drive Sophie to suicide.

Second – Louisiana today. News media have been covering this breaking story in recent weeks. Faced with record spring runoff throughout the Mississippi watershed, the US Army Corps of Engineers, other federal agencies and state and local officials, have been assessing the inundation likely under a range of scenarios. Under the first, they open the Morganza Floodway above New Orleans. Under the second, they allow the full volume of water to head south uncontrolled. Under the last, they divert excess water through the Old River Control structure. Officials are essentially making a trade: certain flooding of about 3000 square miles of small towns and countryside in rural Louisiana in order to prevent a potentially worse disaster – levee failures in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and flooding exceeding that of Katrina, wiping out whole neighborhoods as well as countless chemical facilities and oil refineries. Those responsible have made the decision – to open the Floodway. They may be implementing that choice even as I write this. Thousands of people are evacuating the areas of likely flooding, sandbagging in an effort to minimize their local loss, and grieving.

Psychologists and social scientists, most notably Paul Slovic, a psychologist at the University of Oregon, tell us that when we hear about disasters of this magnitude, we experience numbing. We’re incapable of grasping the enormity of such events as the aggregated sum of immense, overwhelming personal tragedies. Instead, we allow them to become empty statistics. So when we learn of starving millions, when we study the Holocaust, or Stalin’s execution of millions as he cemented his power in the former Soviet Union, or the fact that a third of the population between Iceland and India died of the Black Death in the winter of 1347-1348, we quickly consign that to some compartment in our brain where we store other factoids (how many ounces in a pound? How many games in Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak? How many calories in a Big Mac? etc.).

Just this once, let’s try consciously to override this universal tendency. Let’s use this occasion to see if we can make ourselves a bit less calloused about the tragedy that is unfolding.

How to do this?

Here are a few ideas.

First, let’s put ourselves in the place of people packing up, preparing to leave the only homes they’ve ever known. Picture the decisions we’re trying to make. Which paltry few things are we going to take? Where are we going to go? What resources can we draw on, given that we’re losing our jobs as well as our homes? What do we tell the kids, who know something terrible is happening but can’t comprehend it? For that matter, how can we explain to grandma, who’s in advanced stage of Alzheimers, who’s being asked to move out of her room? What do we do about the one child who picked today to be sick? Maybe the car broke down last night. Any chance to get that fixed? How do we get our heads around the idea that this has happened after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and last year’s oil spill, have already drained our resilience and our energies?

Or…put yourself in the shoes of people in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. There’s relief…and right behind it there’s guilt. You’ve been saved from the worst – maybe. And only at the price of immense suffering – distress and misery for thousands of folks no better or worse, no less deserving, than you, all across the surrounding area. Some of them are family. How can you look them in the eye next time you see them? What can you possibly do to make them whole? To show your gratitude for the sacrifice they made? To demonstrate that you all really were in this together?

Don’t move quickly on. Dwell on these realities. Let them sink in. Expand this short list, which doesn’t begin to do justice to the state of things. Come up with your better set of thoughts. Remember…this is how it felt to be Sophie’s kids. “What’s happening to my sister? Why is she going that way?” “Why am I being separated from my brother and mother? Mommy!”

Second, let’s now put ourselves in the shoes of those who are making the decision to open the Morganza Floodway. Is there any joy here? Any self-congratulation? Of course not. None of these men and women, from Army Corps of Engineers generals and Governor Bobby Jindal on down, can find any reason for satisfaction. They didn’t sign on for this…destruction. They’re builders. Rejuvenators! Givers of hope! This is wrong! They’re today’s Sophie. They were forced to choose.

And here’s a key point. Like Sophie, they simply found themselves in this role. Few of these people played any part in creating the conditions that made this choice necessary. For that, we have to look back to their predecessors – the long line of thousands and thousands of state and local officials, and those serving in the Corps of Engineers over the past 150 years. And none of those people deliberately set out to sabotage cities and towns. Each day out of those 60,000 days, they made small decisions and infinitesimal compromises needed to get through the day. On this scale, it was impossible to see how that ratcheted up the risk, bit by bit.

And they weren’t the only ones. Land developers and business leaders made the decision to snuggle up more and more resources right behind the levees all up and down the Mississippi. And all those who are being flooded out get annual notices from the Corps to the effect that flooding would be a distinct possibility.

Third, we don’t have to put ourselves in others’ shoes. Instead, we need to honestly take stock of our own lives. No quarter of the United States is free from risk from natural hazards, industrial accidents, or willful acts of terror. And every action we take throughout our lives – where to set down roots and start a family, what jobs to accept, whether to be active in community affairs or sit on the sidelines – each decision and its sequelae set into motion a local ratcheting up of risk. Each day, we’re thoughtlessly, opportunistically, setting up a problem for either ourselves or our children.

What’s happening in Louisiana is not just happening to someone else, someone faceless. It’s our destiny unless we consciously make decisions to get off this cycle of inevitable disaster and repetitive loss. Across the nation, each of us has played a small part in what’s unfolding today. And we’re playing a bigger part in similar tragedies lining up to happen tomorrow. We can and should do better. The starting point? Building-in community resilience into every aspect of our thinking, rather than just treating it as an afterthought.

It’s not just Sophie’s choice.

TO FOLLOW DR. HOOKE'S BLOG "LIVING ON THE REAL WORLD" CLICK HERE

Disaster Response Team

Over the years, many of our Disaster Response Team members have come from the homeschool circles. Perhaps it is because those circles have SAH family members, perhaps it is because of the way we have incorporated children into our efforts. Either way, we want to encourage you to consider becoming involved in the C4LDRT.

We remember well the assistance we received from young people during the Eldora, Iowa deployment, and we are looking at historic severe weather already this year throughout the United States and could use more of you...

Over the course of the years, Chasing4Life’s Disaster Response Team has grown, shrunk, and then grown again in numbers. We have sought for a DRT Coordinator for some time that would take over the responsibilities of coordination, direction and organization of the C4LDRT for some time and we are excited to announce that we have secured a new C4LDRT Lead Coordinator.

This team is a team of volunteers that possess the skills and passion needed to respond to disaster situations and scenes throughout the country with little to no notice. Because the team is volunteer, we know that not everyone can respond every time, and we also know that skill-sets differ and thus make some more instrumental at one scene while not as much at another.

Because of all this, we are looking to connect with new volunteers and looking to reconnect with those that, over the years, have slipped into another world or have not contacted us in a while.

Everyone has a gift, and it is this truth that we stand on as we re-build the C4LDRT. If you are interested in joining this effort, please visit the link below.

Joining the team will require online classes, trainings, assembling your response gear, and assisting us in recruiting new members as well as supporters. It is our goal to rebuild the team so that it resembles the original with Regional Coordinators and area teams.

Skills and interests we are looking for include, but are not limited to: severe weather tracking, debris removal, counseling, heavy equipment operation, construction, search & rescue, medical, fire, communications, hazmat, education and more.

Again, if you are interested, visit the link below and contact us. You will receive a listing of requirements, a description of operational procedures and protocols, and will be contacted directly by our new coordinator.

If you are interested in simply becoming a supporter or a sponsor of this newly revived team, please use our website to contact us directly.

With all that said, we want to thank those members that have been with us through the years; the lives saved and the lives changed are numerous, and it has been all because of you...

Access the new web page at http://www.chasing4life.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=181&Itemid=197

Is YOUR family ready to Shakeout?

With more the 40 million people living and working in the central U.S., a major earthquake could cause unprecedented devastation. What we do now, before a big earthquake, will determine what our lives will be like afterwards. With earthquakes an inevitable part of this region’s future, we must act quickly to ensure that disasters do not become catastrophes.

The Great Central U.S. ShakeOut in April 2011 will involve more than one million people through a broad-based outreach program, partnership with media, and public advocacy by hundreds of partners. This event is being organized by the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (http://www.cusec.org) and the states of: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The 2011 Great Central U.S. ShakeOut earthquake drill will be held at 10:15 AM local time on April 28, 2011 (April 19 in Indiana)

A key aspect of the ShakeOut is the integration of comprehensive science-based earthquake research and the lessons learned from decades of social science research about why people get prepared. The result is a “teachable moment” on par with having an actual earthquake (often followed by increased interest in getting ready for earthquakes). ShakeOut creates the sense of urgency that is needed for people, organizations, and communities to get prepared, to practice what to do to be safe, and to learn what plans need to be improved.

Not just any drill will accomplish this; it needs to be big. It must inspire communities to come together. It must involve children at school and parents at work, prompting conversations at home. It must allow every organization, city, etc., to make it their own event.

The 2011 ShakeOut drill will be the largest preparedness event in central U.S. history. To participate, go to www.ShakeOut.org/centralus and pledge your family, school, business, or organization’s participation in the drill. Registered participants will receive information on how to plan their drill and how to create a dialogue with others about earthquake preparedness. All organizers ask is that participants register (so they can be counted and receive communications), and at the minimum practice "drop, cover, and hold on" at the specified time. It is only a five minute commitment for something that can save your life. It all begins with registering, which is free and open to everyone.

For more information, visit www.ShakeOut.org/centralus.

FUNDRAISING

IF YOUR HOME SCHOOL ASSOCIATION IS LOOKING FOR AN EDUCATIONAL FUNDRAISER WITH NO INVESTMENT AND A GREAT RETURN, CONTACT OUR OFFICE BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO INFO AT CHASING4LIFE.ORG AND PUT "HELP ME RAISE MONEY" IN THE SUBJECT LINE!

Nick Walker

Creating curriculum for homeschool can be just as difficult as you want to make it. Extravagant curriculum that fits somewhere in the course of the day can take hours upon hours to create with very little return. On the other hand, the right website or resource can open up weeks of learning experiences for the homeschooler.
While a lot of homeschooling families that I know have set limits on television-watching, we cannot deny that television is still one of the most powerful influences on our children. It is this fact that we use every day as we tour... we KNOW that the kids watch television, so we use that connection to educate them. They watch storm stories and storm chasers, so we gear programs to that interest! That is just one example...

There is a an on-air personality with The Weather Channel by the name of Nick Walker. Watching his afternoon show, you would place him as a normal meteorologist with salt-n-pepper hair; not really standing out amongst the likes of Greg Forbes, Mike Bettes and surely not the adventurer Jim Cantore. While Mr. Walker seems like a mild-mannered weather guy, let your kids look a little further...

Nick Walker is an amazing educator with a great website. The links he has created has become a library of fodder for homeschool curriculum, and there is no better time of year than right now to start integrating these subjects into your lesson plans!

Check out the weather dude (wxdude actually) at http://www.wxdude.com/ and see what you and your kids come up with! Let them watch Walker on TWC in the afternoon as he reports on current weather conditions, and then go check the facts on his site!

Learn safely!

Happy New Year

And so, as it is with every January... we have reached the beginning of a new year and new tours. The team is set to tour more than ever before and we have big plans for 2011.
Efficiency. The office staff will be handling much more this year, allowing the instructors the time needed to create programming and concentrate on touring itself. Starting in 2011 we will be adding more resource pages to the website so that contracts, itinerary templates and marketing materials will all be downloadable.
Technology. With the addition of STORMPULSE to our featured product list, you will see that we are attempting to venture into more technologies that will allow families and communities to become more prepared. In mid-winter we will release our Chasing4Life Application as well; another exciting addition! ThreatNet will become a HUGE focus this year as we have arranged to feature it at over a dozen large conferences this year.
Marketing. If you are sponsoring any events this year and have sponsored events in the past, you will notice that we have changed our paperwork and have added new guidelines that coincide with the new marketing strategy we created in mid-2010. All of you will notice new marketing materials, new pictures and even new staff this year on the website. We have added a "Girl Scouts Only" page to the site, but a newer addition is our "Boy Scouts Only" page as we will be providing a program series for Boy Scouts this year due to the incredible demand we received.
You'll see that we are investing in larger shows. Watch our FaceBook and website for the conventions, conferences and showcases coming up.
Social Media. More than ever before we are using social media to stay connected to you. If you have not checked us out on FaceBook, simply go to our home page and head there today!
Sponsors. You will see new sponsors this year. Chasing4Life is already signing with companies and organizations that have made a commitment to stay with us all year, maintaining involvement throughout the touring seasons so that we can see greater things happen like scholarships for small groups and schools.
Instructors. In anticipation of the New Year, we added new instructors. While we are not finished, we feel we have an experienced team that can meet the needs of more and more communities and organizations as the year progresses. Go meet them on the site!
Focus. We feel like we have more focus than ever before. You are going to see larger programs, more subjects, more involvement and a fresh new focus on simple disaster preparedness for the family.
It is going to be a good year. Let's create a more resilient America together!

Fire Safety For the Holidays

I remember responding to a fire call years ago on Christmas Eve. It was a split-level house in a nicer neighborhood, around midnight, and the temperatures were sub-zero. I had been cuddled up with family watching a Christmas movie, and a fire call was not what I expected.

The house was fully engulfed, and as a young firefighter, this was the first large fire I had ever been to. The roof caved in shortly after we arrived and the sparks sailed high into the air along with a lrge plume of smoke. In that plume was a family’s Christmas…

Everything was gone. I remember as the sun came up, we were still knocking down small fires within the foundation and talking about how we could help this family. They not only had lost their Christmas, but their home.

A rough way to start Christmas morning.

Did you know that each year fires occurring on the holidays claim the lives of over 400 people, injure 1,650 more and cause over $990 Million in damage? This year, despite the distractions and trappings of the holiday, take the time to make sure you have followed some of these simple rules from the United States Fire Administration:

Preventing Christmas Tree Fires

* Christmas Tree Fire Hazards - Movie segments demonstrating how fast a live Christmas tree can become fully engulfed in flames. Special fire safety precautions need to be taken when keeping a live tree in the house. A burning tree can rapidly fill a room with fire and deadly gases.
* Selecting a Tree for the Holiday
Needles on fresh trees should be green and hard to pull back from the branches, and the needle should not break if the tree has been freshly cut. The trunk should be sticky to the touch. Old trees can be identified by bouncing the tree trunk on the ground. If many needles fall off, the tree has been cut too long, has probably dried out, and is a fire hazard.
* Caring for Your Tree
Do not place your tree close to a heat source, including a fireplace or heat vent. The heat will dry out the tree, causing it to be more easily ignited by heat, flame or sparks. Be careful not to drop or flick cigarette ashes near a tree. Do not put your live tree up too early or leave it up for longer than two weeks. Keep the tree stand filled with water at all times.
* Disposing of Your Tree
Never put tree branches or needles in a fireplace or woodburning stove. When the tree becomes dry, discard it promptly. The best way to dispose of your tree is by taking it to a recycling center or having it hauled away by a community pick-up service.

Holiday Lights

* Maintain Your Holiday Lights
Inspect holiday lights each year for frayed wires, bare spots, gaps in the insulation, broken or cracked sockets, and excessive kinking or wear before putting them up. Use only lighting listed by an approved testing laboratory.
* Do Not Overload Electrical Outlets
Do not link more than three light strands, unless the directions indicate it is safe. Connect strings of lights to an extension cord before plugging the cord into the outlet. Make sure to periodically check the wires - they should not be warm to the touch.
* Do Not Leave Holiday Lights on Unattended

Holiday Decorations

* Use Only Nonflammable Decorations
All decorations should be nonflammable or flame-retardant and placed away from heat vents.
* Never Put Wrapping Paper in a Fireplace
It can result in a very large fire, throwing off dangerous sparks and embers and may result in a chimney fire.
* Artificial Christmas Trees
If you are using a metallic or artificial tree, make sure it is flame retardant.

Candle Care

* Avoid Using Lit Candles
If you do use them, make sure they are in stable holders and place them where they cannot be easily knocked down. Never leave the house with candles burning.
* Never Put Lit Candles on a Tree
Do not go near a Christmas tree with an open flame - candles, lighters or matches.

Finally, as in every season, have working smoke alarms installed on every level of your home, test them monthly and keep them clean and equipped with fresh batteries at all times. Know when and how to call for help. And remember to practice your home escape plan.

Make sure that YOU, YOUR FAMILY and YOUR HOME are still there on Christmas morning. Have a safe and happy holiday.

Christmas Investigations Make Great Lessons

Hard to keep the kids focused with all the Christmas hustle and bustle around you? Take advantage of it this year and turn everything “Christmas” into everything “home-school”! Life is about learning, so why not?
The other day I was looking at some real reindeer someone had on their farm. They are pretty amazing creatures. With all these “tiny reindeer” we keep hearing about during the season, is there really such a thing?
Do some “reindeer Research” this year to start off your “Christmas Curriculum”. Turn your kids into “Super Slueths” and take them to WalMart to create a list of things they could investigate!

Did you know that a reindeer’s shoulders are 4 to 5 feet long?

I just watched a Christmas special where the reindeer were brown, but actually, they are only brown in the SUMMER! What color are they in winter?

Unlike regular deer, both the female and the male reindeer have antlers.

So much for the Christmas Specials…reindeer shed their antlers in winter.

Not sure how Santa deals with this, but did you know reindeer go south in the fall and leave the frozen tundra?

Did you know that reindeer are great swimmers?

See? This could be the best season for getting your kids to do research and report on subjects that EVERYONE seems to care about but few KNOW about!

Send us an email and let us know what you find out!

Pets at Thanksgiving

“Don’t be giving that to the dog!”

I hear that a lot at Thanksgiving. After all, the kitchen is a frenzied mess and food is flying so it only makes sense to toss a few things to Mac who is lying on the floor right in the middle of it all. For the bigger chunks, we of course, have a St. Bernard just outside the door. The argument is always that “it is okay” because dogs can eat anything.

Turns out, that is not true; in fact, in an article I recently read put out by the ASPCA, I found out that there is A LOT of Thanksgiving food we probably should not be feeding our pets.

The article made a pretty good point: pets won’t be so thankful if they munch on undercooked turkey or a pet-unfriendly floral arrangement, or if they stumble upon an unattended alcoholic drink.

Here are some of the tips they had in the article…

Turkey
If you decide to feed your pet a little nibble of turkey, make sure it’s boneless and well-cooked. Don't offer her raw or undercooked turkey, which may contain salmonella bacteria.

Sage
Who would have guessed this one? Sage is used in a lot of dishes at Thanksgiving but it and many other herbs contain essential oils and resins that can cause gastrointestinal upset and central nervous system depression to pets if eaten in large quantities. Cats are especially sensitive to the effects of certain essential oils.

Bread Dough
Don’t feed your pets raw bread dough and if you drop some, pick it up right away. According to ASPCA experts, when raw bread dough is ingested, an animal's body heat causes the dough to rise in his stomach. As it expands, the pet may experience vomiting, severe abdominal pain and bloating, which could become a life-threatening emergency, requiring surgery.

Cake
If you’re baking up Thanksgiving cakes, be sure your pets keep their noses out of the batter, especially if it includes raw eggs—they could contain salmonella bacteria that may lead to food poisoning.

Too Much
A few small boneless pieces of cooked turkey, a taste of mashed potato or even a lick of pumpkin pie shouldn’t pose a problem. However, don't allow your pets to overindulge, as they could wind up with a case of stomach upset, diarrhea or even worse—an inflammatory condition of the pancreas known as pancreatitis. In fact, it’s best keep pets on their regular diets during the holidays.

After the new Year, we’ll be running a series on pet safety, pets in disasters and how to make an emergency plan that includes your pets but for now, let’s just get through the holiday without killing Fluffy and Spot with Thanksgiving food.

Stay safe while you travel, make sure you have that safety/preparedness kit in your car and enjoy your holiday!

Special Note: We have truly enjoyed meeting all our new homeschooling friends these past few months as we toured. NOW is the time to make sure your HomeSchool Association or group gets on our calendar for the all-day workshops! Dates are going quickly!

Scaring up some safety tips...

Halloween is probably the most controversial of all the holidays; especially amongst homeschoolers.

Do we? Don’t we? If we do, HOW?

For those of you celebrating the Halloween Holiday with a home school association or local church, you are probably making the safest choice, but traditions die hard and despite the growing number of indoor theme parties and events, there will still be thousands of little ones running around this weekend amidst the leaves, cold weather and dangers that a holiday can bring.

Here's some tips that we have just for you kids, to help keep you safe on Halloween night!

Never, ever go into a strangers house or even ring their door for treats unless your parents are with you and say that it's okay. There are some people in life that aren't very nice to kids and you have to be careful. Always make sure that your mom or dad is within sight when you go out trick-or-treating.

Be careful when you cross a street. Make sure to look in both directions and make sure that there are no cars coming. If you have a little brother or sister with you, take their hand and help them get across the street, too. If the street has a stop light, wait until the cross walk light tells you that it's okay to cross now, but still check before you cross, look both ways.

While we are mentioning traffic-related safety, make sure that your costume does not inhibit your eyesight or peripheral vision. Strangers approaching you can be seen a lot easier if you can see all around you. While the “robot” cost from a large cardboard box is still pretty cool, you cannot see very well!

If you are an older kid or young teen, and going out with friends, make sure that your parents know where you are going and who you are going with. This may seem like a pain but they are your parents and they love you. They just want you to be safe.

If you can drive and are taking a bunch of friends to a party, make sure that you have enough gas to get there. You don't want to run out on a dark street, all alone, like a bad horror movie!

If you parents give you a curfew, be home when they say. It builds trust between you and them and they are doing it for your own safety. If you are going to be late, call them and let them know.


Vandalism is never cool! Throwing eggs at cars and houses is not cool. Someone has to clean it up and it could be you, if you get caught. You can also be arrested and punished as a juvenile. So, don't think that it's fun only if you can get away with it. It's never the right thing to do! Think about how you would feel if someone did that to your house and how bad it would make you feel.

Hurting animals is never acceptable behavior! Some people use Halloween as an excuse to hurt cats and that is just wrong! Not only is it illegal in most places to hurt or torture animals and punishable by law, you should never hurt a helpless living thing.

One source we used for this blog post was http://www.halloween-safety.com/
Please visit the site for a lot more on Halloween safety tips and ideas!

Cyber-Security Month!

October is Cyber-Security Month, and while we are covering a lot on this on our other blogs, I thought it might be appropriate for our homeschool families to share this Google Video on Child Internet Safety.

Fire Prevention Month

(Image to the left is from "Learning at Home". You can visit this website for Fire Prevention Month ideas HERE)

It really is not that cold yet, but some of the recent nights have been a great excuse to throw a small log in that wood burner and sit in front of the television enjoying that wonderful smell of a fire. Chimneys will soon all be in use throughout the homes across our country shortly, fire wood piles we have worked on all summer will soon be utilized, and fire in general will become a part of everyday life for the next few months. Personally I cannot wait.

I love the sound of crackling logs and the smell of a wood fire, but with all of this comes risk and danger.

October is Fire Prevention Month, and now is the time to begin thinking through evacuation plans, fire safety, smoke alarm maintenance and maybe the process of having a fire drill in your home.

Don't let your family become a statistic this year. A fire drill in your home with your children can save lives. Take a few minutes this month to fire-proof your home and get your family prepared.

I found a website with some pretty easy activities and coloring pages for all our homeschoolers to use while making fire prevention part of their curriculum. You can visit the site HERE.

Here's some facts from the NFPA:

Smoke alarms

• Smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in a reported fire in half.
• Most homes (96%) have at least one smoke alarm (according to a 2008 telephone survey.)
• Overall, three-quarters of all U.S. homes have at least one working smoke alarm.
• Each year, nearly 3,000 people die in U.S. home fires.
• In 2003-2006, roughly two-thirds of home fire deaths resulted from home fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
  - No smoke alarms were present in 40% of the home fire deaths.
  - In 23% of the home fire deaths, smoke alarms were present but did not sound.
• In more than half of the reported home fires in which the smoke alarms were present but did not operate even though the fire was large enough, batteries were missing or disconnected. Nuisance alarms were the leading reason for disconnected alarms.
• More than half of the smoke alarms found in reported fires and two-thirds of the alarms found in homes with fire deaths were powered by battery only.
• Most homes still have smoke alarms powered by battery only. In a 2007 American Housing Survey (AHS), 67% of the respondents who reported having smoke alarms said they were powered by battery only.
• In a 2008 telephone survey, only 12% knew that smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years.
• In fires considered large enough to activate a smoke alarm, hard-wired alarms operated 91% of the time; battery-powered smoke alarms operated 75% of the time.
• Interconnected smoke alarms on all floors increase safety.
  - In a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) survey of households with any fires, interconnected smoke alarms were more likely to operate and alert occupants to a fire. (This includes fires in which the fire department was not called.)

Fire

• Cooking is the #1 cause of home fires and injuries.
• Smoking is the leading cause of fire deaths.
• Heating is the second leading cause of home fires, fire deaths and fire injuries.
• Electrical failures or malfunctions are factors in roughly 50,000 reported fires each year.
• Roughly 30, 000 intentionally set home structure fires are reported each year.

In 2008

• U.S. fire departments responded to 386,500 home fires.
• Home fires killed 2,755 people and injured 13,160.
• Someone was injured in a reported home fire every 40 minutes.
• Roughly eight people died in home fires every day.
• A fire department responded to a home fire every 82 seconds.
• 83% of all fire deaths and 79% of fire injuries resulted from home fires.

Keep A Kid Creative

With Farm Safety Week over, we have entered another special week: Did you know that this week is NATIONAL KEEP KIDS CREATIVE WEEK?

I believe all kids are creative. Each child has an imagination and a curiosity that adds to life each and every day, but so often we allow that creative spirit and ability to be sucked out of their heads by television shows, video games, and most recently, the IPOD.

I remember following my uncle around the farm listening as he talked about how it used to be. he showed me our old saw mill and took me into the barn and talked about how it was built. I spent long hours enjoying his stories, but more importantly, I enjoyed long DAYS of pretending I was living in the mid-1800's. My uncle had ignited curiosity and imagination in his educational talks!

This week, find something around the farm, around your house, around the community or even just in your State that will spark that imagination in a young child. encourage them to write or draw, encourage them to play outside in the autumn air. If only for a moment, unplug, disconnect or hide that ONE THING that is killing the creativity and imagination in YOUR home.

Go keep a kid creative.

For more info on the week and for more ideas, hit the following address:

http://www.brucevanpatter.com/keepkidscreative.html

The first leg of the Girl Scout Tour is almost over and to be honest, it is hard to believe. We have been so fortunate to have the very best girls in the world show up at our events and we are enjoying the energy and willingness to learn.
If you have not stayed on top of Chasing4Life news, the team has partnered with the Girl Scouts to povide programming that focuses on disaster preparedness. Each tour focuses on a special theme and has been designed for the different age groups. Right now we are on our weather watching tour. Following tours include Home Disaster Kits, Climate Change and Animals in Disasters!
Stay tuned for an "End of Tour" Update!

NATIONAL FARM SAFETY AND HEALTH WEEK

If you have been following the Chasing4Life blogs, you know we are still out on the road touring the country and presenting educational programs to every age group in every corner of the country. Ithas been a busy year and while we have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of great people, we have also had the opportunity to see a lot of tragedy. Amidst the things we have seen on tour, perhaps the most horrific have been the ATV accidents.

We are excited that this week is finally here...

It is National Farm Safety and Health Week!

Each year, the National Center For Educational Safety determines a theme for this special week and the 2010 theme is "ATV's: Work Smart, Ride Safe."

Each year, about 800 deaths are reported nationally associated with ATV accidents. In Missouri, 68 deaths were recorded from 2006 through 2008, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. According to government statistics, four out of 10 people treated in emergency rooms for ATV injuries are under the age of 16. The exact number is not known because many ATV injuries are treated at home and not reported.

We have been so encouraged by the response and the results of this year's tour and we know that there is power in communicating. Make this week the week you and your family sit down and discuss new guidelines for ATV use and make sure that you check your ATV for excessive wear and the warning signs of a breakdown.

As always, we want you to have a safe and prosperous harvest season, so Work Smart. (and Ride Safe!)

For more information about Farm Safety and Health Week, see www.necasag.org/nfsnhw.php.