AgrAbility PA and PSU Ag Safety partnered to provide information to Amish families with school-age children through a partnership with a rural fire company. The fire company has several volunteers who are Amish and who were providing safety and health education to all the Amish schools in Centre County, Penn's Valley, PA. Materials provided included AgrAbility information about low-tech modifications, safety vests for kids, coloring books, and safety handouts about extra riders and silo gases, etc.
AgrAbility staff gave a presentation about AgrAbility PA to OTA students at Penn State Mont Alto Campus in Mont Alto, PA on October 23 & 24. Topics of discussion included farm culture, types of agriculture in PA, different types of assistive technology which can be utilized on the farm, and more. It was wonderful to see the interest in future OTA professionals and provide a useful resource for them if they meet a farmer in their future practice as an OTA.
Abbie Spackman, project coordinator with PSU, presented an interactive workshop to the Centre County, PA Agricultural Forum. This is an agricultural group that meets monthly for education, community, and support. Many of the members are older farmers. Abbie provided hands-on demonstrations of low-tech assistive technology such as garden aids, adaptive gloves, shop tools, and more. Each attendee was given a packet of information on AgrAbility, assistive technology, and resources for aging farmers. Attendees were also asked to participate in a lifting and carrying activity that demonstrated adapting daily tasks by changing habits or with items already on the farm. Attendees were very engaged and very interested in follow-up assessments to address their specific abilities.
Submitted by Joyce Brkopac