Kids’ health and safety is focus in South Elgin

Six-year-old Bethany Edwards now knows what to do during a fire.

“I put my hand on the door,” she says while demonstrating inside the South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District smoke trailer. “If it’s hot, I don’t open it.”

She then crawls across the floor to the window, and pulls it open. “You have to wave something with color,” she says, looking back for approval.

“Good job,” says her mother, South Elgin resident Wendy Smith.

Bethany and her mother were among about 125 parents and kids who attended the fifth annual “Kids Day,” a two-hour health, safety and environmental awareness fair hosted by the South Elgin Parks and Recreation Department on Saturday morning.

“I’m happy she learned that,” Smith said. “It is reassuring, especially for us because we live on the second floor.”

About 30 community agencies and service providers, including South Elgin police and the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, manned colorful booths to present information geared to children from infancy to age 12 on topics from autism to crime prevention. Presentations included sessions on college financial planning and child safety seats.

Among the participants was Illinois Operation Lifesaver, whose goal is to promote railroad crossing safety, said volunteer Joel Kirchner, who works for Union Pacific Railroad. “We tell kids that trespassing is dangerous and illegal,” he said. “Our motto for kids is, ‘Tracks are for trains, not for kids.’”

Provena St. Joseph Hospital focused on teaching kids about the amount of sugar in foods, with a display that included various foods and little bowls filled with sugar next to them.

Kids — and adults, too — are usually surprised to find out the sugar content in drinks like VitaminWater and Gatorade, says clinical dietitian Lori Mager. At nearly nine teaspoons of sugar per 16-ounce bottle, both drinks come close to the daily 10 teaspoon intake the hospital recommends for children, she said.

Parent Michelle Diehl, of Elgin, whose 7-year-old son Jeremiah has Asperger’s syndrome, said she was especially happy to find out about a dental office in Elgin that serves children with special needs. Until now, Jeremiah had to be seen at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, she said.

One boy said he, too, learned interesting stuff.

“I was interested in the autism booth,” said Janiel Cortes, 12, of Elgin. “I learned about it in the newspaper, and I liked it.”