Carma Hanson, Grand Forks, letter: Thanks for helping ‘Safe Kids’ event succeed

GRAND FORKS — On April 30, Safe Kids Grand Forks conducted the first car seat recycling event in our community.

In the past, Safe Kids collected and disposed of car seats that no longer were useful. Those seats made their way to the landfill; but this year, with the generous donation of dumpsters and the cost of recycling donated by Waste Management, we were able to both collect the seats and recycle them.

The event was held on the Saturday before the city’s Clean-up Week. This was done in an effort to keep people from putting seats out on the berm for disposal.

In all, 109 car seats were recycled, keeping two full dumpsters of materials from filling up the landfill.

This event also was made possible with help from UND students participating in the Big Event. Eleven members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority descended upon the Safe Kids office to disassemble the seats so that they could be recycled.

Without the help of these students, the event would not have been possible.

Besides the recycling event, Safe Kids also offered a car seat check in the Altru Clinic parking lot. Several of our faithful technicians helped as 28 seats were checked for misuse. As a reminder, we offer routine check-up events in Grand Forks and surrounding communities. For a complete list of dates and times, visit safekidsgf.com.

On behalf of Safe Kids, we thank our local Waste Management Company, UND Big Event volunteers (Kappa Alpha Theta members), Altru Health System and our local volunteers for making this first-time event a huge success.

Carma Hanson

Hanson is coordinator of Safe Kids Grand Forks.

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