A trip to the emergency room isn’t something parents normally wish for their children during summer camp. Unless, of course, the camp is Valley Medical Center’s annual Safety Camp.
The free, day-long program is run by volunteers from the hospital’s Emergency Department, so a trip through the emergency ward is all part of the fun.
The fourth annual Safety Camp takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 30 at the hospital’s Medical Arts Center at 400 S. 43rd St. in Renton.
It will be open to children 7 to 10 years old and will include safety seminars, a tour of the emergency department, interactive sessions with Renton Police K9 officers and Renton Fire Department personnel, and inside looks at fire engines, police cruisers and ambulances.
The day will start out with small-group tours, led by volunteer “camp counselors.” On the tours, children will see how the emergency department works.
Standing in one of the emergency center’s patient rooms, Shane Edwards, the Safety Camp coordinator, pointed out some of the medical equipment kids will interact with during their tours, including heart monitors and blood pressure cuffs.
“We hook them up to our monitor, snap on the three leads, print out their heart rhythm and they get to take (the print-out) home,” he said.
The children also will get to don latex gloves and surgical masks to “make them feel like they are part of the ER,” Edwards said.
After the tours, campers will congregate in the hospital’s MAC building for the more serious part of the day: Safety talks. ER nurses will open the seminar with a talk on bicycle safety. Edwards, who will be one of the speakers, said the nurses will tell kids some true stories about children who ended up in the ER because they didn’t wear proper-fitting bicycle helmets or any helmet at all.
Other talks throughout the day will cover a variety of safety topics, including water and life jacket safety, and gun safety. All the talks aim to help children see the importance of taking simple steps to prevent serious accidents.
Valley Medical will provide a free lunch, as well as a free t-shirt and a backpack filled with prizes for the participants.
Probably the highlight of the day will be the final hour, when the kids will check out the emergency vehicles. Among other things, they’ll climb into “the back of the medic unit” and use a fire hose with the help of firefighters, Edwards said.
The Safety Camp has proved a hit with parents and children. Edwards said it’s been so popular that, although the camp takes place at the end of August, 52 kids had signed up by early July. The camp can accommodate up to 75 children.
Part of the reason for the event’s popularity, Edwards said, is the fact that it’s free. Similar camps around the U.S. charge participants “$25 to $75 for the same things,” he said.
Funding for the camp comes from donations by Valley Medical Center Volunteers in Action, Associated Emergency Physicians, the Lions Club of Kent, and the hospital’s human resources and public relations departments.
