The greatest danger to your children and pets hides in plain sight. It’s not any chemical or plant, it’s no sharp corner or open socket. It’s probably hanging next to your window in a tangled loop right now. Blind cords strangle at least one child a month, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
It’s a shocking statistic, but the ABCs Foundation wants to change it. The nonprofit is dedicated to protecting children and pets by spreading awareness and providing alternative window coverings. BizzyWeb partners with local and national businesses that have a deep commitment to helping others and making an impact on the world. We are proud to partner with ABC. We sat down with Mike Marthaler and Jami Herrmann from ABC to learn more about this issue and their grassroots initiative.
To start, can you tell me about ABC?
Mike: Window blind cords are on the top hidden household dangers list and ABC started from me finding that out little over 3 years ago … the little girl [Weslea] that brought this to our attention lost her life on a Marine base with a vertical chain around her neck. Her ghost or her spirit came to a friend of mine while he was out running his dog, and her concern was the safety of cats and dogs … he shared with me her thoughts [and] we decided to include the children and make sure all of our loved ones – especially the children – are safe … in October, [Jami] and I and the mother of the little girl that passed and this gentleman from Boston, Rick Carlan, formed a 501(c) brief.
You already alluded to this a bit, but what are the main goals of ABC?
Jami: Our main goal is to make safer environments for those that we love – whether it be children or pets.
I noticed the “Operation Pink Fox” on your website. If you could explain in your own words what that is?
Mike: We’re trying to create a model within the ABCs … that can be duplicated in other communities, and Operation Pink Fox is the motivation behind it. It’s kind of the family’s logo for Weslea. In Operation Pink Fox, the first retrofit of a daycare took place in Utica New York a couple years back, and we were donated blinds by Hunter Douglas. I flew out to Boston and we drove to New York with Rick Carlan and one other installer. Chantal, the mother of Weslea, met us in New York … we went ahead and took down the daycare’s blinds and they had knots in them and cords in them and we retrofitted that building that they were in. There was some pretty good press on that, and we’d hoped that three years ago that it would’ve taken off and duplicated itself prior to now and it didn’t because the industry didn’t embrace it as well as we’d hoped it would.
Jami: Operation Pink Fox is really us going out to the community and trying to find daycare facilities or schools or places that potentially have blinds that are unsafe for kids, [then] going around to either make them safer or actually replace them through donation and whatnot to make the area safer for kids.
What should parents, or homeowners with pets or just anyone who has blinds know about this issue? How can they prevent something from happening?
Mike: Well, they can make sure there’s no loose cord loose. They can make sure there’s no knots in the pull cords. They can make sure that there’s no cribs or play areas in front of window blinds that have cords accessible to them. If there are blinds, they can have the cords fastened down or cleated to make them safer. And we’re not really trying to scare anybody, we just want to spread the education.
What are some things that installers can do when they’re putting in blinds?
Mike: The industry is trying to create safer products all the time. Cordless blinds where possible minimizes the danger. They’re taking some ropes out of vertical blinds and putting wands on them. So the industry itself is working hard and becoming pro-safety … one of the campaigns we’re working on is to create an installer challenge and start by challenging each guy … we are doing everything we can do to share the knowledge with the actual homeowner and parents that have little ones.
The campaign is mostly focused on parents and installers, but what are some things that children might want to know about blinds or that parents could tell their children about blind cords?
Mike: What can we tell the children about the blind cords? Not to use them at all, probably. Not to play with them.
Jami: Not to touch them.
Mike: Let mom and dad operate the blinds.
Jami: One of the things we want was to teach the teachers. Whether that be the parent whose teaching the child, or the daycare provider teaching the parent and the child or the fire department teaching teachers so that they’re spreading the awareness to make sure that there’s no knots that could potentially strangle. A kid is playing by the window, and gets caught up in the cord that’s just dangling there. That’s the scary thing, you know? When you come home, your kid is staring out the window waiting for mom or dad to walk in the door. Or your dog is waiting for you at the window. And if you have cords that are loose or that have knots in them hanging by the window, that just becomes a potential danger for them. It’s like setting the toaster next to the bathtub.
Want to connect with ABC? Visit their website, Tumblr, Facebook or Twitter. A video of Weslea’s story can be found on the ABC site.