Members of the Lennox Sundstrom FFA Chapter compiled emergency first aid items into kits for farmers during October.
FFA adviser Kasey Trocke said they received a matching grant of $500 from the South Dakota FFA Foundation this fall to purchase items to assemble 50 farmer first aid kits.
Chapter officers worked on writing the grant.
Chapter vice president Skyler Plucker said things can happen fast in the field. The kits can help in those emergency situations.
“All it takes is a split second for something to happen. Having a kit like this will hopefully save lives,” Plucker said.
Chapter president Tyler Strasser noted that when an emergency happens in the field, farmers need to act quickly.
“If something happens we’ve got tourniquets in there, bleed stop, liquid bandaid, anything that you could need in an emergency in the field to get you to your truck or in order to call someone to come help you,” Strasser said.
These first aids kits are unique from standard first aid kits because they include various sized baggies for body parts if necessary, tourniquets and bleed stop. They also include things like liquid bandage, bandaids, tweezers, medical tape, gauze, scissors, Ibuprofen and Tylenol.
The kits can go wherever the farmer goes. Trocke suggests putting them in the pickup most of the year, but putting them in the most used implement during planting and harvest time.
Trocke said it is important for the chapter to provide first aid kits to farmers because this area of the state is a big farming area.
“Accidents do happen quite a bit,” Trocke said. “Having the things there for the farmer to have and use them is a better thing than not to have them because an ambulance is only so far away and sometimes they may not make it in time to help you.”
The chapter is working on distributing the kits to family farmers in the area. They are also accepting donations to make more kits. Contact Trocke at Kasey.trocke@k12.sd.us if you know a farmer that could use one or if you’d like to make a donation to buy more kit supplies.
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