Amber Emerson with Safe Kids Minot talks to a boy about the questions on the colored wheel at the North Dakota State Fair.

Amber Emerson with Safe Kids Minot is doing all she can to help parents in the community keep their kids safe in all aspects of their lives.

Safe Kids is a worldwide project whose goal is to lower the amount of child injuries and deaths each year. They get closer to their goal by informing parents or soon-to-be parents about keeping their children safe in many different situations.

One of the boards that Emerson puts on display at events is geared toward parents and giving them tips on keeping medications up and out of the reach of children. Sometimes she has an example of a pill disposal bag that makes the medication unusable by turning into a jelly and neutralizing it.

At the sports show that takes place in Minot in the second weekend of March, a Safe Kids Minot board listed ways to be safe while out hunting, on the lake and on all-terrain vehicles.

At the North Dakota State Fair in 2019, Emerson had tables set up under a giant canopy. One table had a large colored wheel that had questions on it that kids could spin and ask the question it lands on. She also used the wheel at the National Night Out event at the fairgrounds. Big colorful things tend to catch the attention of children and there is a higher chance that they will approach and engage in conversation with Emerson and others with Safe Kids Minot.

She is hoping to use the wheel at the fair again this summer. “Kids and adults love it,” Emerson said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Safe Kids Minot events through May have been canceled to abide by the recommendation of social distancing by Gov. Doug Burgum. Most of what Emerson does is community based, so not being able to get out into the community made it difficult for her to talk to parents and kids directly.

To try to share some information about safety during the quarantine, Emerson updated the Safe Kids Minot page on Facebook. Some of the things she discussed were keeping the home safe by putting cleaning products out of the reach of children to prevent poisoning, separating the older children’s toys away from the younger kids to avoid choking hazards and keeping button batteries away from kids, too. Putting small batteries in a safe location eliminates choking and poisoning hazards. Medications being up and out of reach is an additional factor she planned to discuss.

As of March 25, Emerson said the Wild About Safety community day event later in the summer at the Roosevelt Park Zoo is still going to happen. Admission to the event is free and different stations will be set up throughout the zoo and in parts of Roosevelt Park. Some of the topics include “water and fire safety, medication safety, farm safety and safety regarding car seats,” Emerson said, “just to name a few.”

Every couple months, Emerson stops by nursing homes, as well, to go over health and safety tips for the residents.

Making sure that children are safe worldwide is becoming more and more important as children have had to make visits to the emergency room and/or lost their lives for not wearing a helmet on a bicycle, getting into things they shouldn’t have, swallowing a small toy and many other things. Safe Kids Minot is here to serve the community and answer questions that parents and parents-to-be may have.