Clarksville (AR) – The 100th episode of Sparkles’ Safety Spot was live streamed over the web on August 3 from Sparkles’ Clubhouse with hosts Dayna Hilton, Molly the Fire Safety Dog, and Tango the Fire Safety Dog.
The weekly show, the only of its kind on the web, reached a historic landmark.
On April 5, 2011, little did Firefighter and Fire Safety Educator Dayna Hilton know that almost two and a half years later she would be live streaming the Keep Kids Fire Safe Foundation’s 100th episode of the children’s fire safety show, Sparkles’ Safety Spot, with her Fire Safety Dogs.
“For several episodes, Sparkles’ Safety Spot was first live streamed on the web from my living room,” Hilton noted. “A sheet painted with a fire truck served as a background. Our equipment was primitive, but we were so excited to be live streaming the fire safety message to children and their parents, that we didn’t even mind.”
“During the first episode, our county was under a tornado watch. I had to really pay attention to the weather, as it was really bad outside. Fortunately, the sirens never went off and we continued our show with no problem.” The foundation was the first to live stream a weekly fire safety show. “As far as we know, we still are.”
“The concept for Sparkles’ Safety Spot began shortly before the passing of my first partner, Sparkles [the Fire Safety Dog]. Live streaming was just becoming popular and a light bulb went off in my head. I knew that live streaming our safety show would allow us to reach even more children and their parents with the fire safety message and help reduce fire related deaths and injuries.”
Here’s video of Episode 100. You can watch the clip on YouTube HERE.
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“Thanks to First Alert, we were able to build Sparkles’ Clubhouse, a place where we can live stream and Skype with children from all around the world. With a computer and a webcam, we have reached over 100,000 children from the Clubhouse.”
Special guests via video sharing their best wishes and safety tips were Top Chef Season 7 winner, Kevin Sbraga, Kristi Kowal, US Olympian, Nick Bellavia, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, First Alert, Deb Hanson, Director of Public Relations, First Alert, 10 year old Chloe Yarborough (the “Voice of Molly”. Chloe is from Clarksville), Chief Mike Connelly (Evansville Fire Department) and Evie the Litter Dog (Evansville, IN), Author Barbara Techel and Joie, a walk ‘n roll dog (from Wisconsin), Lt. Beverly Walker, Hall County Fire Services (GA), Sophia Loren, from the “Little Dog in the Big City” blog (Sophia has also participated in New York Fashion Week and lives in LA) Opal (Molly’s sister) (GA), Lee Aspery, County Durham and Darlington Fire Rescue Service and Scrappy the Fire Dog (England, UK).
In Clubhouse guests included, Finnagus Sage the Man trailing Blood hound and his handler, Sue Christian, Clarksville Mayor Billy Helms, Clarksville Councilwoman Danna Schneider and Firefighter Frank (a puppet who travels all over the US with Hilton).
Some additional highlights of the show included a clip from the first live stream held on April 6, 2011, clips from the live streams at the Chicago Fire Department, the Aurora Regional Fire Museum (IL) and the Memphis Fire Department.
Notes from the fans of the Fire Safety Dogs from across the world were read on the show. The notes were received on the Fire Safety Dogs’, email and Facebook.
The 100th episode was dedicated to Kathy Fowler from NYC has watched almost 60 episodes of the 100.
SPARKLES’ SAFETY SPOT
The Sparkles’ Safety Spot program helps children learn basic fire safety knowledge and skills with the goals of saving lives, limiting injuries, and reducing fire losses. Firefighter Dayna and her team of Fire Safety Dogs share fun, yet educationally sound, ways to stay safe, live on the web.
Teachers, students and parents tune in to this weekly 15-minute live streaming program where fire safety tips are disseminated in a fun format for children.
The program has included special appearances by safety friends of the two and four-legged type and provides free, downloadable supplementary safety materials for teachers and parents.
Guests have included Finnagus Sage, the Man Trailing Bloodhound, the Lt. Governor and Attorney General of Arkansas and firefighters from all over the United States, among others.
“We have shared every fire safety tip that you can image over the past two years. It’s also a tradition to live stream on Christmas and New Year’s Eve. You would be amazed at the number of people that tune in on those days.”
“One of those joining us is Kathy, from New York City. Kathy is one of our biggest fans of the program. Kathy shared with me that me that she has watched around 60 of the 100 episodes. It’s people like Kathy who help make our program what it is today.”
The program is streamed live on the web every Friday morning at 9 A.M. CST from Sparkles’ Clubhouse as well as on the road when Firefighter Dayna and/or the Fire Safety Dogs travel.
When the fire safety dogs are traveling across the country, the show is streamed live on location. Former locations include the Memphis Fire Department’s main station, Aurora Regional Fire Museum in Aurora, Illinois (just outside of Chicago), the Unified Fire District Authority in Salt Lake City, Utah, Hall County Fire Services (Gainesville, Georgia) and the Vigilant Hose Company in Emmitsburg, Maryland, among others.
“We are excited to have live streamed from 8 states and 2 countries.” We look forward to streaming from even more states and countries in the future.”
Children and adults can chat live and ask questions about fire safety and the Fire Safety Dogs. Perfect for the boys and girls in your life! Children and their caregivers can join the chat and have fun learning at the same time.
You can watch Sparkles’ Safety Spot at http://www.firesafetydogs.com each Friday morning at 9:00 A.M. CST.
About the Fire Safety Dogs
Learning about fire safety can be fun when you learn it with the Fire Safety Dogs! Tango, Siren and Molly are not only members of their local fire department, but mascots for the Keep Kids Fire Safe Foundation. They love helping keep children and their caregiver’s fire safe!
With educationally sound programming, based on Oklahoma State University’s Fire Protection Publication’s Fire Safety for Young Children curriculum, the Fire Safety Dogs have reached millions of children and their caregivers and have helped reduce fire related deaths and injuries for almost ten years. With nine “saves” (helping save the lives of seven children and 2 adults in actual fire related situations), the dogs have quite the experience under their collars.
About the Keep Kids Fire Safe Foundation
The Keep Kids Fire Safe® Foundation (established in 2009) is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization dedicated to teaching fire safety knowledge and skills to children and their caregivers based on fire safety research.
Through its programs, safety materials and strategic partnerships, the Keep Kids Fire Safe Foundation aims to reduce the fire-related deaths and injuries among children.
Stats
According to a report from FEMA’s Topical Fire Report Series (Volume 11, Issue 9 / February 2011), children age 4 and younger, are those least able to make their way to safety without help and account for roughly half of all childhood deaths and injuries suffered in fires. In addition, the report states that children younger than 5 made up 52% of the deaths of children younger than 16 in fires in 2007 and comprised of 46% of the injuries that year.
