To’Hajiilee Community School Students with shiny new helmets provided by ThinkFirst Navajo Photo by Colleen Keane
Last week, our Eve’s Fund ThinkFirst Navajo Injury Prevention Program distributed and fitted 169 certified safety helmets to students in K-5th grades at the To’Hajiilee Community School in To’Hajillee, NM. This large helmet distribution was supported in part by family members of Dr. Erich Marchand and was dedicated to his memory.
Shortly after Dr. Erich Marchand died suddenly last November from an unknown heart condition, some of his cousins and other family members sought to find a way to celebrate his life and work as a pediatric neurosurgeon who practiced most of his career in New Mexico and Colorado. The family chose to donate to Eve’s Fund and our ThinkFirst Navajo Program for our “extensive outreach and education of Navajo children.” They were looking for a “fitting tribute to Dr. Marchand’s dedication to his patients and to his skill and bedside manner and ethics.”
With our focus on “March is Brain Injury Awareness Month,” our ThinkFirst team members, director Jodee Dennison, MPH and VIP (Voice for Injury Prevention), Cecelia Fred taught the students how to “thinkfirst and use their minds to protect their bodies.” Students learned the importance of protecting their heads with properly sized safety helmets when riding on bikes, horses, skate-boards, off-road vehicles or participating in other sports like rodeos, football and skiing.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a properly fitted bicycle (safety) helmet can reduce the risk of serious head and brain injury by as much as 85-87%. Of course, the helmet only works if it is actually worn, is the right size and secured properly.
In addition to participation from the school’s staff to insure that all of the helmets were fitted properly, Ms. Sarah-Woodie, a staff assistant to the Navajo Nation Office of the President, drove a long distance to the school to meet the children and to support this educational initiative. She gave the children greetings from President Jonathan Nez and his family.
ThinkFirst Navajo team and volunteers teach students at To’Hajiilee Community School how to prevent injuries and distributes helmets. Photo by Colleen Keane
In exchange for receiving the helmets, each student was required to pledge that they would “always wear a bike helmet, on every ride, near or far, fast or slow” and would “promise to remind their friends and family to wear a helmet also.”
Thanks to our partnership with the New Mexico Brain Injury Advisory Council (NMBIAC), each of the 169 participants also received an educational activity book introducing students and their parents to the importance of promoting safety helmet use from an early age.
“We are pleased that we could collaborate with Eve’s Fund/ThinkFirst Navajo again this year, with the goal of teaching young school children how to stay safe and prevent catastrophic injuries,” said Monica Montoya, NMBIAC’s coordinator. “ThinkFirst Navajo works so hard to save lives across the Navajo Nation by using an evidenced base curriculum and getting kids committed to the idea of wearing helmets to protect their brains from harm,” Montoya added.
Smiling students from To’Hajiilee Community School with their new helmets Photo by Colleen Keane
The Brain Injury Alliance of Utah reports that: “1 million children sustain brain injuries every year ranging from mild to severe and this number is approximately one-third of all reported childhood injury cases. Further, they report that one death every day and one brain injury every four minutes could be prevented by the use of helmets in recreational activities, including skiing and biking. This public health concern ranks as the leading cause of death and disability in children and adolescents in the United States.” Please visit their website to learn more important facts related to traumatic brain injuries.
So, how did the children react to the presentations? Katrina Nez, the school’s director of Family Engagement reported the following a few days later:
- “It taught me about bike safety and how to keep your body parts safe from injury.” —Boy, 5th Grader (Child owns a bike and uses his helmet now).
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Girl, 2nd Grade. “I am gonna be safe now. I won’t get injured” now that I have a helmet. And, “always be safe,” I need to “look left and right on the roads before I cross the road.” She was s0 happy to receive a helmet.
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Teacher, 1st Grade. Students did not know about helmet safety and learned about it during the presentation on Monday. When students were asked to go out for recess, the students grabbed their helmets and told each other, they needed to wear their helmets to be safe outside. “I am protecting my head” quoted one student. Teacher helped explained to the 1st graders when to use the helmet. She said it was nice to hear the students had learned something.
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Teacher from 5th grade class said students appreciated their helmets and had a few student who came back to school the next day wearing their helmets. “Today (3/27/19), one student brought his helmet again.”
- Parent: “my children came home with their helmets. I let them ride their bikes to their grandmother’s so they could use their new helmets. I followed them with my vehicle. My kids were happy about receiving helmets.”
ThinkFirst Navajo, a major program of Eve’s Fund for Native American Health Initiatives, is one of 136 (national) and 35 (international) chapters of the ThinkFirst National Injury Prevention Foundation and the only one serving a federally recognized Indian Reservation. If you live on or near the Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico, or Utah and would like to schedule a free injury prevention presentation at a school, conference, camp or other event, please contact director Jodee Dennison through Eve’s Fund at: Contact Us.
Eve’s Fund is grateful to the Marchand family and to all of our generous donors for believing in the work we are doing across the Navajo Nation to save young Navajo lives and prevent catastrophic injures.
Thank you for putting smiles on these wonderful children’s faces. Please wear a helmet and stay safe!
