Community Awareness

By Margaret Pennock

– Roxanna McKenna

Executive Director Safety Village of South Dakota

Typically, being noted in the top three of anything is a great honor. However, being noted in the top three when it comes to the number of unintentional deaths of children under the age of 19 it’s tragic. According to safekids.org, South Dakota ranked 49th following Wyoming and Alaska with childhood unintentional injury death rates - well above the national average.

For Safety Village of South Dakota’s Executive Director Roxanna McKenna, this fact makes her commitment to work collaboratively with local first-responders, county emergency management departments, businesses, donors and volunteers critical. She shares, “Children are precious and we need to safeguard them in our state. Our programming is focused on reducing unintentional injury death rates in South Dakota through education.”

Founded in 1998, Safety Village of South Dakota educates the public about safety and injury prevention on topics ranging from fire, home and farm safety to poison prevention, bicycle and pedestrian safety, and impaired and distracted driving. A nonprofit organization, it relies heavily on volunteers and donations to support its mission serving more than 6,000 children ages 4-18 and their families annually.

“Our goal is to educate children and adults to make safe choices when presented with opportunities to make this choice. We help them to understand and give them the tools to make the best decision possible. The support we’ve gotten from our community has been amazing and makes what we do possible.”

Located at the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds, the Safety Village offers multiple opportunities both on-site and through outreach opportunities, all at no or minimal cost for participants.

SAFETY VILLAGE PROGRAMS

• Coming Soon! Safety Town: Mobile safety education opportunity for children 5-7

• Family Safety Fairs: Opportunities for families to learn safety skills together

• Field Trips: Safety House at the Safety

Village is available year round

• HEROES Summer Safety Camps: Two funfilled days for kids aged 11-13 led by First

Responders, SWAT team, K9 unit, Bomb squad and Firefighter demonstrations, mock-crime scene with CSI unit

• Worst Decision Ever: Focus on Teens and driving while impaired and distracted

• C.R.A.S.H.: Car Repair And Safety Help for

Teens Clinic

For more information about enrolling your children in a Safety Village program, camp or to volunteer or donate, visit safetyvillage.org. n

Anti-aging medicine, or functional medicine, is becoming one of the most popular areas of medicine today. Functional medicine aims to keep people healthy and functioning regardless of their age. Most of us want to live as long as we possibly can and small decisions we make every day can impact the quality of our life for years to come. We plan for so many occurrences in our life, but few of us plan for our inevitable aging.

What can be done to help with optimal aging? Two of the challenges that face us as we age are high blood sugar and elevated blood lipids. Berberine Support is a product we carry at Pharmacy Specialties & Clinic that supplies high-potency berberine combined with alpha lipoic acid that can help with blood sugar and lipid management. Berberine also has been shown to provide a relaxation role in the blood vessels, thus lowering blood pressure. Alpha lipoic acid is an antioxidant that can protect against the oxidative stress that occurs with aging. But always remember when optimal aging is the goal, a healthy diet, adequate exercise, and a healthy lifestyle are the best way to maintain your body function for years to come.

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