Author: carolyn

8-Year-Olds’ Summer Camp for Younger Kids Raises Funds for Prevention 1st

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Camp;bell Rogoff with her friend and co-counselor Lily Rae.
Campbell Rogoff (right) with her co-counselor Lily Rae

Eight-year-old Campbell Rogoff got the idea while playing with a 5-year-old neighbor in the Rogoff’s pool:  “We could call this Camp Campbell”. She talked with her friend Lily Rae, also 8, about making Camp Campbell official.

“We thought it would be great that kids can get out, and be with other kids,” said Campbell. Their day camp would have a variety of activities and charge a reasonable camp fee.

Lily Rae suggested a business model: they needed a ‘trial’ day to see if the idea would fly. When four kids came on the trial day and “everyone loved it,” the girls knew they had a winning model. When Camp Campbell officially opened on a Wednesday, they had nine campers ages 4-6 years old. By the second camp day on Friday, nine new and returning campers showed up.

Campbell’s parents knew just how successful their daughter’s idea was when they got a call from someone they didn’t even know. 

“A mother had heard ‘Camp Campbell’ was open and wanted to know how to enroll her child!” recalls Campbell’s father Brett.

“Miss Campbell” and “Miss Lily Rae,” as their nametags identified them, provided lots of activities besides swimming in the pool. The campers enjoyed making and playing with water balloons, ‘slime,’ and bubble mix, as well as—the favorite—whacking a pinata. Along with the fun they were also taught important pool safety rules, such as staying in the shallow end of a pool if you haven’t yet learned to swim.

Camp Campbell raised $100 in camp fees. Campbell discussed it with her family and decided to donate the money to Prevention 1st, of which Brett Rogoff is a Board member. The Rogoffs have added their own donation to this, introducing the girls to another model: the matching gift.

It may be possible to be too successful. One mom reported her son had begged: “Let’s go to Camp Campbell every day!”

Every day might be a bit too much work. But Campbell and Lily Rae do plan to bring back Camp Campbell later this summer. After all, the demand is there. And they’ve got a winning model.

When Fire Moves Outside

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A campfire casts a warm glow and a sense of adventure—even if it’s in your own backyard. Cooking dinner outside on a grill can make any meal “our favorite!” This year, being outside is a special pleasure. As we move outdoors and bring fire with us, it’s important to bring safety as well.

  • Pick your spot carefully. Whether it’s a grill or firepit, make sure it’s well away from houses and sheds, vehicles, shrubs and trees including low-hanging branches.
  • Enforce a “3-Foot Rule” just as you do for the stove. Keep children and pets at least three feet from the fire or grill.
  • Never use gasoline or kerosene on either a grill or a campfire.  If you’re using starter fluid with your grill, never put the fluid on a hot grill. Make sure lighter fluids are stored securely and away from children.
  • Resist the belief that bigger is better when it comes to campfires! A roaring blaze can more easily get out of control, and can send embers long distances.
  • Just as you wouldn’t leave the stove unattended, never leave your campfire or grill unattended. Put a campfire out completely before you go to bed. When you’re done with a charcoal grill, let the coals cool completely before moving or storing it.
  • Store lighters and matches out of sight and reach of children.
  • Model safe behavior for your children, treating fire with respect. Avoid assigning fire tasks to children too young to understand fire risk or react if something unexpected happens. To learn more about what children understand about fire.

Stay Safe When Disinfecting Your Home

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Cleaning and disinfecting our homes has taken on new importance during the coronavirus pandemic. To stay safe, it’s equally important to use and store cleaning and disinfecting products properly. The CDC has these tips:

  • Keep cleaning products out of reach in homes with small children and pets.
  • Never mix chlorine bleach with ammonia–or any chemical other than water. This can create deadly gasses. (Note: Bleach can appear on ingredients lists as sodium hypochlorite).
  • Just as you shouldn’t directly mix chemicals in a bottle, be careful about using one product after another on the same surface. If you must use two separate products to clean and disinfect, wipe the surface thoroughly with water to remove all residue from the first product before using the second.
  • When using bleach keep the area well-ventilated.
  • Disinfectant sprays are meant to be used on surfaces, never on the body, pets, or food.

The CDC provides these directions for a proper bleach solution: 5 tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water, OR 4 teaspoons of bleach per quart of water. Make only as much bleach solution as you’ll need right now, because it starts to lose effectiveness after only about a day.

Kids at Home

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With many schools closed and parents working from home due to coronavirus, many households are disrupted. As you try to establish normal routines for these abnormal times, keep safety in mind:

  • Tripping hazards—toys, shoes, books on the floor—can accumulate quickly when kids are home all day. To prevent falls and keep pathways clear if you need to get out quickly on case of fire, make “pick up” a regular part of kids’ routines.
  • Maintain a “child-free zone” around a hot cooktop and oven. Children ages 8 and younger can help in the kitchen, but only with activities that don’t involve heat or knives. Check out Kids in the Kitchen for what kitchen responsibilities are appropriate at different ages. And while you’re cooking more at home, make sure you’re Modeling Kitchen Fire Safety.
  • Looking for activities to do with your kids? If you haven’t planned—or recently reviewed—your home fire escape plan now could be the perfect time. Learn how at www.homefiredrill.org. 

Online activities for kids:

Mikey Makes a Mess – a children’s book by Fireproof Children

Help Mikey Make It Out – an award-winning online teaching game

Cooking Safely at Home

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With restaurants closed in many states and communities, we will certainly be cooking more at home. So, it’s’ a good time the remember that cooking is a leading cause of house fires – make sure it doesn’t happen to you!

60% of house fires start in the kitchen, but these fires can be prevented!  Take these simple steps to keep your family safe:

  • Don’t leave the kitchen when cooking on the stovetop.
  • Keep the stovetop area clean and free of clutter.
  • Tie back hair and loose clothing.
  • Keep a lid nearby to slide over a small grease fire and keep it on until the pan is cool–NEVER put water on a grease fire.

Frying is a leading cause of kitchen fires – stay safe AND healthy and consider baking or broiling your food instead!

Kids in the Kitchen

Cooking Matters: Modeling Kitchen Fire Safety

Protect Your Family From Fire

Protege a su Familia de un Incendio

Protect Your Family From Scalds and Burns

Find more information on kitchen safety and other prevention tips, here.

Prevention 1st Fire Safety Poster Contest Winners Announced!

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NYS Senator Joe Robach, Marlene Hamman-Whitmore and
Rochester Fire Marshal Christine Schryver judge the posters

Talented young artists from schools throughout the area–RCSD Abelard Reynolds School #42, Cobbles Elementary School, East Rochester School, Harris Hill Elementary School, Honeoye Falls Manor School, RCSD Pinnacle School #35, Scribner Road Elementary School, St. Joseph School, and the Charles Finney School–contributed posters to the contest this year.

Congratulations to our 1st Place Winners in each category:


Rishaan Shah, 1st Grade, Scribner Road Elementary School

Juliette LaBarr, 4th Grade, The Charles Finney School

Alyssa Klawon, 5th Grade, RCSD School #42

Honorable mentions go to:


Youngju Noh, 3 Grade, Cobbles Elementary

Emma Thomas, 1st Grade, St. Joseph School

Abdisadik Ali, 5th Grade, RCSD School #42

Antonio Dixon, 5th grade, RCSD School #42

Hyoju Joanne Noh, 1st Grade, Cobbles Elementary School

And congratulations to fifth-grader D’angelo Dixon, the lucky winner of a random drawing of all poster artists, who will get a ride on a firetruck to RCSD Abelard Reynolds School #42, courtesy of the Rochester Fire Department!

Prevention 1st would like to thank this year’s judges for their work in choosing this year’s winners:  New York State Senator Joe Robach, Rochester Fire Marshal Christine Schryver, and Memorial Art Gallery Education Director Marlene Hamman-Whitmore.

Posters were judged on both artistic merit and the impact of its fire safety message. All participants will receive a certificate and all posters will be displayed at the following locations around the city and county during March:

Rochester Public Library Children’s Center (winners and honorable mentions)

Monroe County Office Building

Rochester City Hall

Rochester International Airport

Rochester Museum and Science Center

The Mall at Greece Ridge

Marketplace Mall

Canandaigua National Bank

Eastside Family YMCA

Rogoff Scholarship Winner Brings Safety Home

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Lauren Ritchie of Lancaster NY, the first winner of the Arlayne & Stephen D. Rogoff Scholarship, learned to prevent injuries through a very personal experience: caring for her beloved grandmother.

The Rogoff Scholarship application requires an essay outlining the candidate’s personal experience with a preventable injury or in-home danger and their plans to generate awareness or educate others on such risks. In her essay, Ritchie wrote of her close relationship with her grandmother, “my first true friend.”  When a near-fatal infection and multiple surgeries left her grandmother needing assistance, prone to falls, and vulnerable to injuries in her own home, “She became more dependent on me and our roles were reversed.”

The steps that Ritchie and her family took to protect her grandmother make a good checklist for anyone: They reviewed her home for tripping hazards and removed them, placed night lights, and bought grab bars, non-slip mat, and a shower seat for the bathroom. They installed smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in main areas and the bedroom, and, crucially, put reminders in family member’s calendars to regularly change each detector’s battery.

With these devices and prevention measures in place, Ritchie wrote, “I began to see her life return to normal again.” Now 91, her grandmother continues to live independently.

Ritchie plans to continue to spread awareness of preventable injuries as a Physician Assistant specializing in gerontology.

The Arlayne & Stephen D. Rogoff Scholarship was established by their children — Scott, Brett and Robyn — along with their families and the Prevention 1st Board of Directors.  Mr. Rogoff was a tremendous friend to Prevention 1st, and co-founded the organization’s first major fund raiser, a Golf Tournament in 2013. The $1,000 scholarships are awarded to recipients who best demonstrate Stephen’s empathetic and actionable character. For more information contact info@prevention1st.og.

Mark Your 2020 Calendar!

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The seventh annual Jane and Larry Glazer Memorial Golf Tournament to benefit Prevention 1st will be held Monday, September 20. Board members Michael Chatwin and Jessica Holly will co-chair the event, which this year will move to a new location: Irondequoit Country Club.

The Golf Tournament is a major source of support for Prevention 1st’s injury prevention programs, last year raising more than $44,000. Watch for details and registration information in the coming months.

Prevention 1st Names Officers for 2020

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Prevention 1st is pleased to announce our Board officers for the coming year.

Jack Dinaburg will serve as President as Molly Clifford steps down. We wish her all the best in her new life in Philadelphia!

Michael Chatwin, who has served on the Golf Tournament committee since its inception, will serve as one of two vice-presidents. Rick Glazer will continue as our second vice-president.  Our thanks to Bob Crandall for his prior service in this office.

Troy Whigham will continue as Treasurer.

Jessica Holly, co-chair of the Golf Tournament, will serve as Secretary. Thank you to Jen Glanton Ralph for her service.

We would also like to thank and recognize several Board members who have retired from the Board this year: Andrea Demeo, Michael Hirsch, Carolyn Kourofsky and Stewart Moscov.

Meet our full board here.

Child-Resistant Caps Still Need You to Prevent Medication Overdoses

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Child-resistant caps on medication bottles have helped reduce fatal poisonings of young children in the U.S. since they were mandated decades ago. But they can only protect children if they’re in place.

The holiday season brings visits to and from friends and families of all ages. Grandparents and adults who don’t usually have young children under the same roof may need to be reminded to carefully replace the cap on medications and keep medication bottles out of sight and reach.

Medications have overtaken household products such as cleaning fluids as the leading cause of child poisonings, and the number of ED visits and calls to poison control centers for medication overdoses is rising. Between 2005 and 2009, ED visits for medication overdoses among children younger than 5 years rose 20%.*

The peak incidence for unintentional medication overdoses is in 2-year-olds. It’s an age when young children are developing greater ability to move around on their own—and when their ability to reach surfaces previously out of reach can increase unexpectedly from one week to the next.

For all ages, analgesics (painkillers) are the #1 substance involved in poisonings reported to poison control centers, responsible for 11% of such poisonings.

The initiative Preventing Overdoses and Treatment Exposures Task Force (PROTECT) is promoting development of a new generation of safety packaging to limit the amount of medication a child could ingest even if a child-resistant cap has not been re-secured properly.

Acknowledging that even enhanced safety packaging will not be 100% “child-proof,” PROTECT has also launched the “Up and Away” public education campaign to promote safe use and storage of medications. Among their suggestions:  program the national poison control number (800-222-1222) into your cell phone.

Find more tips for preventing poisonings and other injuries in Prevention 1st’s Safety Resources.

*Data from the National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, and Center for Disease Control and Prevention.