Families flock to safety festival

Two first-time exhibitors came to the Community Safety and Wellness Festival in La Vista on Sunday with destruction on their minds.

Kelsey Palmer’s paper-shredding truck and Angela Brockman’s car seat recycling table drew plenty of curious onlookers as they worked side by side in the parking lot of the Embassy Suites Hotel.

Palmer and Brockman were among hundreds of volunteers who talked to visitors numbering many times that about ways to stay safe, while the Salvation Army distributed hot dogs, chips and cold drinks. The twice-a-year event is sponsored by the National Safety Council.

Palmer, an employee of Shredding Solutions of Lincoln, demonstrated how easy it is for his truck to cross-cut shred hundreds of pounds of personal papers.

Terry and Liz Foxhoven of Omaha said they would have needed “about two hours” to get rid of the trash bags of papers that the large truck reduced to pulp in a few seconds.

“I am impressed by how fast (the truck) went,” Terry Foxhoven said. “And you definitely don’t want your personal data sitting in front of your house, where anyone can go through it.”

Palmer said the Shredding Solutions truck will visit a home, business or storage garage, but the customer must have at least 175 pounds of paper to be shredded. The company charges $25 for a minimum load and 10 to 20 cents for every pound thereafter.

Brockman, helped by her 9-year-old son, Justyn Stuck, explained her grass-roots campaign to keep worn-out child safety seats out of landfills by taking them apart and distributing the pieces to local recyclers.

Brockman said she began Car Seat Recycling about 18 months ago and has disassembled and recycled more than 400 car seats.

“Our purpose is to get unsafe seats out of cars and to keep them out of landfills,” Brockman said.

Anyone wishing to dispose of a child seat can e-mail her at ang42202@yahoo.com or call her home at 884-5217. A volunteer will pick up the seat and properly dispose of it.

Rob and Laura Vitera of La Vista were first-time visitors with their 2-year-old daughter, Lillian, and 1-year-old son, R.J. Their children’s car seats have quite a bit of mileage left, but Lillian was impressed by an adult seat belt demonstration, her mother said, and kept talking about the family needing to “buckle up” when they returned to their car.

“Lillian is also getting to meet a lot of firemen and police officers,” Laura Vitera said. “She knows now that they are friendly and helpful.”

Doug and Sharon Mullennax of Glenwood, Iowa, brought their 10-year-old son, Andy, and 5-year-old daughter, Rachel, so they could review safety procedures. They almost never miss a safety fair, Doug Mullennax said.

“Fire safety is one of the main reasons,” he said. “The firefighters show them what smoke is like and what it does and how to escape.”

Contact the writer:

444-1272, kevin.cole@owh.com

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