Service League babysitting class a tradition
Published 6:54 pm Monday, March 19, 2007
By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Another group of fifth- and sixth- grade boys and girls are ready for babysitting.
More than 70 students became Niles Service League-certified babysitters Saturday. Each student received tips on safety and emergency practices, infant care and entertainment.
"It's something that [the students] can say, 'I've been through this class.' So [parents] have a little bit more confidence in who is babysitting their children," said Sharm Haimbaugh, the Niles Service League's chair for the Babysitting With Confidence Clinic.
The Niles Service League has annually put on the clinic in the spring for more than 20 years. Again on Saturday the local organization teamed up with Lakeland Hospital to make the event possible.
Four areas of babysitting were covered in the program: games and projects, fire and home safety, infant care and infant CPR and rescue breathing.
Members of the Niles Fire Department and the Service League, as well as Lakeland staff, instructed the courses.
The entertainment session gave students ideas for age-specific games, crafts and activities. Fire and home safety was lessons on how react to emergency situations when on the job as a babysitter.
Infant care, taught by Lakeland registered nurse Julie Lester, instructed students on how to hold babies and change diapers. The CPR and rescue breathing gave tips on how to react to a choking infant.
The Service League provided each student with an instruction book to follow during the morning, and to use as reference while on the job. Each student also received a certificate of completion at the end of the three-hour session.