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High school carnival promotes safety ahead of summer

High school carnival promotes safety ahead of summer

Yahoo02-06-2025
POCONO SUMMIT, MONROE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Having fun at the carnival, but also learning about safety. How one local high school gets its students and area first responders together to prioritize being safe in the summer.
Walking on a straight line is normally an easy task, but when you're wearing beer goggles, it makes it a bit harder.
'I couldn't see anything at all…Like I was looking at the floor and I thought I was on the line, but I wasn't,' said a freshman at Pocono Mountain West High School, Ronald Christian.
The goggles mimic your vision while intoxicated, helping students recognize if they're not seeing straight. You shouldn't get behind the wheel.
'I don't know why people who drink and then decide to drive, when you could just call an Uber,' said Christian.
This activity is all part of Pocono Mountain West High School's safety carnival, an annual event put on by the group, SADD, Students Against Destructive Decisions.
Woman shot by police while allegedly attacking civilian
'It's our first year that we have a BearCat coming this year. All the fire trucks and all the different police vehicles, it's all awesome,' explained the junior Brady Behr of Pocono Mountain West High School.
Local law enforcement and first responders attend to show them the ropes.
'We're going to be demonstrating 'Stop the Bleed', CPR, and a lot of just first aid things. What to do in an emergency, how to activate 911, and just sort of training the students on what we do,' explained Austin Schrader, chief operating officer at Pocono Mountain Regional EMS.
Leaving an impact, Coolbaugh Township volunteer firefighter Danyyil Rudey says he remembers attending the carnival when he went to school here.
'If a student has the opportunity to go here and come back and teach other people about what they learned, and all the benefits that come with it, it's huge,' said Rudey.
How to drive safely is a top priority at the school event.
'This time last year I was just getting my license, and it just helps show all these kids, especially if they're just getting their license, different things that they can avoid and do to make sure that they're good,' said junior Madison Clark.
Learning, while also having fun in the sun, before school lets out for summer.
'Looking at the different career paths and learning new safety options and being prepared for life and what could be thrown at you in any time,' said junior Hannah Bossuyt.
'It means a lot to me because I think it's really important to keep everyone safe, and considering I'm friends with a lot of people in S.A.D.D., it's really important we know safety precautions just in case,' explained junior Isabella Pavuk.
The student organization tells 28/22 News the event takes all year to plan, and they work to make it bigger and better each year.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Israeli strikes kill at least 20 in Gaza, health officials say
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Los Angeles Times

timea day ago

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Israeli strikes kill at least 20 in Gaza, health officials say

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Andy Bales was back at work the day after losing his only leg. Now he's riding RAGBRAI
Andy Bales was back at work the day after losing his only leg. Now he's riding RAGBRAI

Yahoo

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Andy Bales was back at work the day after losing his only leg. Now he's riding RAGBRAI

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Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

Allergies seem nearly impossible to avoid — unless you're Amish

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Hay fever, or an allergic reaction to tree, grass and weed pollens, emerged as the first recognized allergic disease in the early 1800s, climbing to epidemic levels in Europe and North America by 1900. The 1960s saw a sharp increase in the prevalence of pediatric asthma, a condition in which the airways tighten when breathing in an allergen. From the 1990s onward, there has been an upswing in the developed world in food allergies, including cow's milk, peanut and egg allergies. Urbanization, air pollution, dietary changes and an indoor lifestyle are often cited as possible factors. The 'hygiene hypothesis' - first proposed in a 1989 study by American immunologist David Strachan - suggests that early childhood exposure to microbes protects against allergic diseases by contributing to the development of a healthy immune system. The study found that hay fever and eczema were less common among children born into larger families. 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'The Amish kids are in and out of the cow barns all day long from an early age.' When analyzing samples of Amish and Hutterite house dust, they found a microbial load almost seven times higher in Amish homes. Later experiments showed that the airways of mice that inhaled Amish dust had dramatically reduced asthmalike symptoms when exposed to allergens. Mice that inhaled Hutterite dust did not receive the same benefit. Now, Ober and Vercelli are beginning to identify the protective agents in Amish dust that prevent allergic asthma. In 2023, their analysis of farm dust found proteins that act like delivery trucks, loaded with molecules produced by microbes and plants. When these transport proteins deliver their cargo to the mucus that lines the respiratory tract, it creates a protective environment that regulates airway responses and prevents inflammation. 'We don't really talk about the hygiene hypothesis as much anymore because we now understand that it's not really about how hygienic you're living,' said Kirsi Järvinen-Seppo, director of the Center for Food Allergy at the University of Rochester Medical Center. 'It's more like a microbial hypothesis, since beneficial bacteria that colonize the gut and other mucosal surfaces play a significant role.' During the first year or two of life, a baby's immune system is rapidly developing and highly malleable by environmental stimuli, such as bacteria. Some experts believe that exposing young children to certain types of beneficial bacteria can engage and shape the growing immune system in a way that reduces the risk of allergic diseases later in life. Farm dust contains a hodgepodge of bacteria shed from livestock and animal feed that isn't harmful enough to cause illness, but does effectively train the immune system to become less responsive to allergens later in life. In 2021, Järvinen-Seppo and her colleagues compared the gut microbiomes of 65 Old Order Mennonite infants from a rural community in New York with 39 urban/suburban infants from nearby Rochester. Like the Amish, the Old Order Mennonites follow a traditional agrarian lifestyle. Almost three-fourths of Mennonite infants in the study were colonized with B. infantis, a bacterium associated with lower rates of allergic diseases, in contrast to 21 percent of Rochester infants. 'The colonization rate is very low in the United States and other Western countries, compared to very high rates in Mennonite communities, similar to some developing countries,' Järvinen-Seppo said. 'This mirrors the rates of autoimmune and allergic diseases.' These clues about the origin of the farm effect represent a step toward the prevention of allergic diseases, Järvinen-Seppo says. 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