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Show CS Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Vernal Express J ' Protecting children from 'stranger danger' By Nancy A. McBbide NATIONAL SAFETY DIRECTOR Floyd Farnsworth and Vernie Heeney receive teacher in excellence awards. Two receive Teachers in Excellence Awards Parents, guardians, and adults who care for children face constant challenges when trying to help keep children safer saf-er in today's fast-paced world. The National Center for Missing Miss-ing & Exploited Children (NC-MEC) (NC-MEC) offers easy-to-use safety resources to help address these challenges. For decades, children were taught to stay away from "strangers." But this concept is difficult for children to grasp and often the perpetrator is someone the child knows. It is more beneficial to help build children's confidence and teach them to respond to a potentially potential-ly dangerous situation, rather than teaching them to look out for a particular type of person. NCMEC is the nation's resource re-source center for protecting children. Our prevention and safety education programs and materials contain information and tips that will help you keep your children safer. The Just In Case... and Know the Rules publication series are especially espe-cially important for parents and guardians. So what does "stranger danger" really mean, and do children benefit from an outdated and incomplete message? Here's what we have learned about the "stranger-danger" "stranger-danger" concept Here are some guidelines for child safety: Don't forget your older children. Children 11-17 are equally at risk of being victimized. vic-timized. At the same time you are giving your older children more freedom, make sure they understand the important safety safe-ty rules as welL When you speak to your children, do so in a calm, non-threatening non-threatening manner. Children do not need to be frightened to get the point across. Fear may actually work at cross-purposes to the safety message, because fear can be paralyzing to a child. Speak openly about safety issues. Children will be less likely to come to you if the issue is-sue is enshrouded in secrecy. If they feel you are comfortable discussing the subject matter, they may be more forthcoming to you. , Do not confuse children with the concept of "strangers." "strang-ers." Children do not have the same understanding of who a stranger is as an adult might The "stranger-danger" message mes-sage is not effective as danger to children is much greater from someone they or you know than from a "stranger." Practice what you talk about You may think your children chil-dren understand your message, but until they are able to incorporate incor-porate it into their daily lives, it may not be clearly understood. Find opportunities to practice "what IT scenarios. ; Teach your children it is more important to get out of a threatening situation than it is to be polite. They also need to know it is okay to tell you what happened and they won't be a tattletale. For more information or acquire ac-quire more resources for parenting par-enting visit http:www.ncmec org The 2007 Annual Teacher Recognition Celebration took place on March 3. Two Teacher in Excellence Awards were given. The awards were given by the Uintah Schools Foundation. Wendy Mathis, president of the organization, explained that the foundation gives mini grants to teachers to help them buy supplies for the school year. The money is raised through fund-raising events and private donations. The two receiving the awards were Floyd Farnsworth and Vernie Heeney. Each received $500 along with the award. These two teachers were nominated nomi-nated by former students. Heeney was nominated by Emily Emery who commented, "Ms. Heeney was strict enough to keep order in class and she never let me down." She continued, con-tinued, "She was always right there with you. You could count on her." Finally, Emery concluded, "She made me feel like somebody." Farnsworth was nominated by two students; Kayden Jensen and Logan Hilman. Jensen mentioned that Farnsworth helped to teach students how to juggle. Hilman and his mother spoke of a deep fondness for Farnsworth. Then Hilman and Farnsworth entertained the crowd by juggling. Farnsworth commented that, "Juggling helps to teach students how to deal with failure. When were babies and were learning to walk there is a light in our eyes as we fall and. get back up. Somewhere in life we lose that light, but juggling helps to bring that back. Because if you are going to learn to juggle than you are going to drop the ball." The Uintah Schools Foundation also mentioned that they had been awarded $25,000 for their . Indian Storytelling festival. Freec ycle recycle in Vernal The Vernal Freecycle(tm) Network Net-work is proud to announce the launch of their new online group and accompanying message mes-sage board, VernalFreecycle. Based on the old adage that "one person's trash is another person's treasure," the Vernal Freecycle(tm) Network's goal is to slow the flow of trash into our landfills by connecting people peo-ple who want to get rid of old "stuff' with those frugal people looking for free "stuff'. . Anyone looking to give away or acquire an item is welcome at Vernal Freecycle(tm), where all items listed are absolutely free. Vernal Freecycle(tm) welcomes wel-comes charitable organizations to post their needs, giving confidence con-fidence to a donor that the item is actually needed locally, and is not going to collect dust on a thrift store shelf. The Vernal Freecycle(tm) Network Net-work was established in Jan. 2007 by Naples resident Tina Harrison. Vernal Freecycle(tm) Network was inspired by and is modeled after the Tucson Freecycle(tm) Network, founded found-ed in March 2003 and profiled in the September 2003 issue of Utne magazine. Created by the non-profit group "Downtown Don't Waste It", the Tucson Freecycle(tm) Network has sparked a worldwide world-wide "Freecycle" revolution of 1,717,882 people in over 50 countries coun-tries so far, with more added every day. So whatever you're looking for, need or want look for it first at www.FreeCycle. org. Local Basin area residents in Vernal, Naples, Roosevelt Duchesne, Jensen, and Dinosaur Dino-saur are encouraged to join the Freecycle(tm) Vernal group and "freecycle" their trash rather than just thoughtlessly, tossing it away to clog and fill our landfill sites. All we ask is: Keep it free, legal and appropriate for all ages. This means, for example, no alcohol, tobacco, firearms or drugs, legal or otherwise. Two strikes and you're out of the group. This is our main Freecycle Freecy-cle rule to live by and it's a pretty pret-ty easy one at that No advertising advertis-ing your yard sale, though, as you're looking for money and that isn't free. Together, we can raise awareness, reduce waste, and build a brighter tomorrow. tomor-row. Contact Tina Harrison at gygeyuhaubtanet.com for more information. liHispWiiilii lllliilf JMI Basin man earns top management credentials Bradley D. LeBaron Bradley D. LeBaron, FACHE, CEO, Uintah Basin Medical Center, recently became a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the nation's leading professional society for healthcare leaders. "As an independent community hospital, our leadership is involved on the state and national level to bring awareness to the needs of small rural hospitals," sayS Gary Child, Public Relations Director. LeBaron currently serves on the American Hospital Association Policy Board as Utah's Delegate. He has served on the Utah Hospital Association Executive Committee and Government Relationship Committee as Chairman. Locally, he serves on local Zion's Bank Eastern Regional Advisory Board and Duchesne County School District Benefits Committee. LeBaron, CEO for UBMC since 1993, says "Since becoming CEO of UBMC I have felt responsible to be involved in preserving preserv-ing the ability of rural hospitals to survive and provide healthcare for the communities communi-ties they serve. I'm concerned about our community but you can't be involved without with-out having an affect on rural communities throughout the state of Utah. I'm proud of our hospital, our employees and the serviced ser-viced we provide. We are only striving to ' improve the quality of life of the families we serve." "Because healthcare management ultimately ulti-mately affects the people in our communities, commu-nities, it is critically important to have a standard of excellence promoted by a professional organization," say Thomas C. Dolan, PHD, FACHE, CAE, president and chief executive officer of ACHE. "By becoming an' ACHE Fellow and simultaneously simulta-neously earning board certification from ACHE, healthcare leaders can show that they are committed to providing high-quality high-quality service to their patients and community." com-munity." Fellow status represents achievement of the highest standard of professional development In fact only 5,400 healthcare executives hold this distinction. To obtain Fellow status, candidates must fulfill multiple mul-tiple requirements) including passing a comprehensive examination, meeting academic aca-demic and experiential criteria, earning continuing education credits and demonstrating demon-strating professionalcommunity involvement involve-ment Fellows are also committed to ongoing ongo-ing professional development and undergo recertification every three years. , LeBaron is privileged to use the FACHE credential, which signifies board certification certifica-tion in healthcare management and ACHE Fellow status. P, W Hi JdC J ft I f :,"7 J W 0 K Y it Bluetooth ready MobSa vkteo irriJrnet access . TtwNokta 4109 only fK f Q oooaooo "Requw 2ya agnemmt on any plan at tSS or higher. "Nokia 6103 valued prtoed at 99 cert. CXfar ends March 31. Some raetricflona apply. Museum friends invite new members It's official: Friends of the Utah Field House, a support group for the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, is up and running. The first members formally paid their dues and joined at the group's February meeting, and invite other community members to do likewise. Membership in Friends of the Utah Field House is open to all, from local residents to visitors from afar. Annual membership categories range from the $10 T. rex level for students under age 18, through basic individual membership member-ship (Stegosaurus, $25), to various higher support levels. Membership benefits include one or more free admissions to the Field House, discounts on museum gift shop purchases, purchas-es, and invitations to special events. If you are interested in joining, please contact Linda West (789-4313, or llwesteas-ilink.com), llwesteas-ilink.com), or come to the next regular meeting, Wednesday, March 28, at 7 p.m. in the Field House multi-purpose room. The Friends' goals are twofold: two-fold: to raise funds to further the Field House's development and programs, and to recruit volunteers who can donate time in support of museum activities. Fiscal support from the Friends might, for example, exam-ple, supplement state funding for more of the planned permanent per-manent exhibits in the Field House, or could help bring in traveling exhibits such as the Range Creek archaeological collection currently on display. Volunteers are often needed to help with activities such as programs for visiting school groups, fossil excavations, or planting flowers in the Dinosaur Gardens. A core group of about 20 to 30 people interested in helping help-ing the museum achieve its goals have been meeting for more than a year to set up the Friends. The organization was officially incorporated in Utah in 2006, and elected its directors direc-tors arid officers for 2007 in January. Federal tax-exempt status as a 50l(cX3) nonprofit group is pending, which will make donations to the Friends tax deductible. Rock Solid in Real Estate! Ifo Prudential Ashley Valley Realty USED 365 West 50 Norm Suite W8 Vernal (435) 789-7265 Prcdeniisl i Ashley Valley ; Realty 00 1 I 2 3 4 ZAjL- 1 2 7 io soive buaoKu, enter digits so that every row, column and three-by-three sector contain one of each digit 1 -9. , , An independently Owned and Oprratrd Member of The Prudential Real ttlat Affiliates, Inc. tfiifjf-.-;.'- |