Playground burn is a new incident in todays playgrounds, with excessive heat there are more hidden dangers that parents were not conscious of before. One tragic incident occured on Memorial day this year in New York City at Carl Shultz Park on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where a young boy suffered tragic playground burn from dangerously hot playground mats. Rubber mats are usually used to protect children when they fall, but who would have thought that while protecting children in one way could become a hazard in other ways. These rubber mats become very hot when the blistering sun causes the mats’ temperatures to rise to high levels.
Continue reading ‘Shade structures can help to prevent play equipment burn’
Climate change affects another social behavior, this time its school schedules. August saw a trend of many school districts closing early or changing school schedules to curtail the heat. Some schools even canceled recesses to avoid children having to play outdoors due to soaring temperatures. As the heat goes up we are seeing more and more schools opt to use our shade structures to cover their playgrounds to enable their children to have more outdoor play. Further, shade structures may have water misters affixed to them which gives the children more relief and more fun in the shade.
To ensure that schools are aware of whta the heat and humidity is outdoors, the National Weather Services issues excessive heat warnings and schools are advised to check out your local temperatures before allowing children to be exposed. Go to our website www.shade4schools.com to learn how you can protect your children, while affording them that critical exercise time outdoors.
Shade4Schools Fundraising program has been featured in this month’s Education Grants Alert newsletter. Education Grants Alert is a weekly report on funding opportunities for K-12 programs, and is circulated to all schools in the country.
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The full page article showcased various fundraising ideas, using the product as a creative twist to traditional fundraising, and encourages schools to use different tools to canvass more parental and student support. Shade4Schools is highlighted in the article, with a view of educating PTA/PTO’s on the concept of raising funds through donation based programs. The structure of the fundraiser allows for shorter timelines and no investment at the outset. Other fundraising ideas in the article discussed using the cookie dough concept by introducing a healthier cookie alternative, which would also garner more support from parent bodies. For more information on fundraising ideas contact info@shade4schools.com.
In May this year, Wisconsin launched a state wide effort to make their state a “SunWise State”. More than 400 health educators received the SunWise Tool Kit with lessons plans and activities to learn about sun safety. Elizabether Burmaster the State Superintendent stated that they were excited about becoming a SunWise state because the program is fun and interactive teaches children and their families to protect themselves from harmful uv radiation, even on cloudy days. Children need physical activities to remain healthy and need to be outdoors. Schools can use shade structures to protect children while at play, visit www.shade4schools.com to learn how your school may be SunWise by integrating sunwise education into your curricula and access shade structures to protect children from uv rays of the sun.
Schools are encouraged to use The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, SunWise program to teach children about sun safety. With over 20,000 educators registered to use this program it is the most widely-used health education program in the United States. For more information about SunWise, visit www.epa.gov/sunwise.
