22nd Annual Burn Awareness Week
NEW dates!
October 7 – 13, 2018
Scalds, not fire, are the most common cause of burns to children
Majority of parents don't know about this burn hazard
Over $7,000 in prize money to elementary schools participating in Burn Awareness Week Poster Contest
VANCOUVER, Oct. 9, 2018 /CNW/ - In order to provide greater effectiveness to our program, The BC Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund's 22nd Annual Burn Awareness Week (BAW) Elementary School Program will run on October 7th – 13th, 2018 to coincide with the already well established National Fire Prevention Week, which is observed annually every October.
Burn Awareness Week teaches kids to be responsible for their own safety and helps make their families aware of potentially harmful situations. All Burn Awareness Week resources and curriculum are available online at burnfund.org.
To encourage student participation, the Burn Fund runs the annual Burn Awareness Week Poster Contest. Every entrant receives a participation prize and fifty students will win money for their elementary school or distance education facility. There are seven regional prizes, including a $1,000 Grand prize and six $500 Regional prizes. Regions are the Lower Mainland (three winners), Vancouver Island, Kootenay, Northern BC and the Okanagan (one winner for each area). Forty-three students win runner-up prizes of $50 each for their school or distance education facility.
NEW! This year as part of the development of our Burn Awareness activities, we are adding a new video contest component specifically for grades 4 – 7.
Students within these grades are encouraged to create a maximum 3-minute video that contains a strong Burn Awareness Week message as it relates to the current year's theme of 'Look. Listen. Learn. Be aware. Fire can happen anywhere.'
All styles of video are accepted: drama, comedy, documentary, music video, stop-motion, claymation or animation. All videos must be posted on YouTube no later than October 13th, 2018. (see below for submission details).
Submitted videos are based on age-appropriate skill and will be judged on message and content.
1 winner will receive either $500 cash / a drone for their school and will also receive a class pizza party.
All poster and video entries must be dated no later than October 13th, 2018.
Posters to be mailed to:
BC Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund, 3891 Main Street, Vancouver, BC V5V 3P1
Video links (via YouTube) to be emailed to: [email protected]
Complete prize details, rules and regulations are available online.
Public and private elementary schools in British Columbia, parents, students – anyone – can access the program online, which includes burn awareness safety tip information, student activity sheets, quizzes, coloring pages, and animated videos. The program is available in PDF format for easy download and printing.
Educational, fun and interactive, the program includes age-appropriate safety lessons intended for K/Grade 1; Grade 2/3; Grade 4/5; and Grade 6/7.
The Burn Hazard
Many Canadian parents aren't aware of the scald and burn hazards in their homes. A survey by Safe Kids Canada found that 70 per cent of Canadian parents did not know that the most common cause of burn injuries to children is scalds from hot liquids, such as spilled hot drinks and hot tap water, rather than fire.
"Most adults realize that children need to be kept safe from fire or hot objects like the stove, but they do not realize that hot liquids are just as dangerous," says Jason Milne, Burn Fund Director and Chair of the Burn Awareness Week Program. "Hot liquids burn just like fire."
Each year an estimated 9,000 children in Canada visit hospital emergency room for burns, and almost half of these have suffered scalds from hot liquids. Close to 1,000 Canadian children are hospitalized each year for severe scalds and burns. Approximately 50 per cent of these children are hospitalized for scalds alone (Source: Safe Kids Canada).
The most common sources of burns to young children are scalds from hot drinks and hot tap water. Scalds from hot tap water are often the most severe. Contact burns from ovens and gas fireplaces are also frequently seen in young children. Children's skin is thinner and more sensitive. A child's skin burns four times more quickly and more deeply than an adult's skin at the same temperature. Most home hot water heaters in Canada are set at 60° Celsius (140° Fahrenheit). At this temperature, a child's skin can burn in just one second.
The Burn Fund urges parents to study this important burn and scald safety information and to spend some time with their children to review the online Burn Awareness Program. [Ed. Note: A list of scald and burn prevention SAFETY TIPS is available upon request.
The Burn Fund is a registered charity established in 1978 by the BC Professional Fire Fighters Association. It provides life-saving, life supporting, and life enriching services to the people in British Columbia. More than 4,000 professional fire fighters from fifty-three communities in British Columbia and Yukon dedicate their time and skills to support burn survivors and increase the public's knowledge about fire and burn safety issues through the work the Burn Fund does with its Burn Awareness, Research and Prevention Programs.
The 22nd Annual Burn Awareness Program is kindly sponsored by Capilano Suspension Bridge, Global TV BC, Vancouver Courier Publishing, The Old Spaghetti Factory - Gastown, and Panago Pizza.
Available for interview: Jason Milne, BCPFF Burn Fund Director & Chair of the Burn Awareness Week Program; and Burn Fund Local Representatives in fifty-three communities throughout British Columbia are available to discuss Burn Awareness tips. Frances MacDougall, RN at BC Children's Hospital and Facilitator of the BC Professional Fire Fighter's Burn Fund Too Hot for Tots burn education and prevention program.
SOURCE British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters Burn Fund
Media Contact: Kari Woo, 604-436-5617, E-Mail: [email protected]
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