Law enforcement joined public health employees, safety groups and volunteers to teach Toombs County residents about child safety seats, seat belts and road safety.

Bonnie Brantley knew one thing for sure: people in Toombs County needed to learn more about road safety. Previous surveys conducted in the county showed just one-third of children traveled safely in car seats and only about 40 percent of drivers and passengers wore seat belts. In her years of inspecting car seats, Brantley has seen misuse of all kinds, from secondhand, faulty equipment to a parent using a butter knife to anchor a car seat.

"When it comes to traffic safety, the education level here is very low," said Brantley, the Safe Kids Coordinator at Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia. "We needed help getting the information out."

Brantley and her colleagues at the Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Rural Roads Initiative turned to the Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) for help. The office brought together law enforcement officials and highway safety educators, who joined forces with the Rural Roads Initiative and local volunteers to host the Toombs County Occupant Safety Caravan April 8-10. During those three days, the group traveled the area educating all kinds of drivers and passengers about staying safe on the road.

"The safety caravan is really important for the rural areas where we don't have a lot of resources," Brantley said. "When you get 30 people from all over the state coming to help you, it makes such a difference."

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and its affiliated fund, the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, were recently awarded the Clyde Partin Service Award from the Southern District of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (SDAAHPERD).

The award honors a person or organization that is not a member of the profession but has made significant contribution to the development and promotion of SDAAHPERD's goals and purposes, or in the efforts of the SDAAHPERD divisions in their program planning and/or development.

AMBFF/AFYF is dedicated to helping Atlanta neighborhood youth increase their physical activity and fitness while fighting obesity and improving nutrition. As the largest NFL owner-funded foundation, AMBFF/AFYF has provided grants totaling more than $18 million to combat obesity and bring healthy, affordable food to Georgia residents who lack access.

"We are honored to receive recognition from the physical education teachers who are working so hard to improve the health and fitness of Georgia children," said John Bare, vice president of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation. "We are excited to see so many communities taking innovative approaches to increase the time kids spend in physical activity."

First responders and HAZMAT units, in particular, must make many decisions quickly in handling hazardous-materials incidents. They need accurate information about the hazardous substances, the emergency resources available, and the surrounding environmental conditions to save lives and minimize the impact on the environment and physical property.

The WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders) app helps them do just that.

WISER extracts content from TOXNET's Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), an authoritative, peer-reviewed information resource maintained by the National Library of Medicine, and places that information into the hands of those who need it most. Other features of WISER include: rapid access to the most important information about a hazardous substance by an intelligent synopsis engine and display called Key Info; intuitive, simple, logical user interface developed by working with experienced first responders; and comprehensive decision support, including guidance on immediate actions necessary to save lives and protect the environment.