Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
SANTA ROSA — About 160 third-graders from Guadalupe, Quay and De Baca counties descended on the Guadalupe County Fairgrounds on Sept. 26 to learn how to stay safe in their homes, in the yard and out in the country.
The gathering of young learners is an annual event that Guadalupe County’s New Mexico State University Agricultural Extension Office, along with the Progressive Agriculture Foundation, has hosted in the county since the early 2000s, according to Leigh Ann Marez, Guadalupe County’s extension agent.
Progressive Agriculture is a national organization dedicated to promoting health and safety to rural children, according to its website.
At the Santa Rosa event, groups of third graders cycled through 15-minute demonstrations of how to stay safe around electricity, water, home chemicals, all-terrain vehicles, firearms and small-engine devices like weed-whackers and lawn mowers.
They also received instruction on 911 calls and fire safety.
The kids’ favorite was ATV instruction. They perched on an ATV mounted on a device that New Mexico Game and Fish Ranger Justin Heppler could tilt up, down, right and left. Heppler showed the kids how they should position themselves for climbing, descending and turns if they were driving an ATV. Each student got a turn at “driving,” complete with safety helmets.
Anthony Salas, the Santa Rosa Fire Department’s assistant chief, demonstrated equipment on a fire engine and had the kids try on heavy fire jackets and helmets.
Aspen Achen, De Baca County’s agricultural extension agent, meanwhile, demonstrated how often poisonous household chemicals can look exactly like foods and beverages that kids like.
“Which one of these is Gatorade and which one is Windex?” she asked, holding up mason jars with nearly identical-looking blue liquids.
J.R. Jacobs, representing telephone cooperative Plateau, a local sponsor, told the children about when and how to make 911 calls.
“What do you do if you call 911 accidentally?” he asked them.
“You hang up,” one student answered.
“No, you don’t hang up,” he said. “You stay on the line and explain that you dialed it by accident.”
If the caller just hangs up, he explained, the 911 operator might think a real emergency call was interrupted.
The point was the kids couldn’t guess and the advice was to ask an adult.
Gary Persons, demonstrating weed-whackers, told the third-graders they can produce a high-pitched whine, “worse than your little sister.”
Marez said Progressive Agriculture started the program two decades ago under the title of “Farm Safety Day,” but it has evolved to more general safety instruction for kids who live in rural areas.
As Marez helped volunteers from Santa Rosa’s Rotary Club as they grilled hot dogs for lunch bags, she explained how Progressive Agriculture’s research showed that safety instruction is especially effective for third-graders.
The safety day, she said, has become a community event, with community groups and businesses sponsoring the event along with national sponsors. Local business owners serve as volunteers at the event.
Marez explained that Santa Rosa’s safety day is one of several in eastern New Mexico. Others are held in Clayton, Roswell and Clovis, she said. Hosting as many as 1,500 children.