Safety Through Skill

December 3, 2002

You've been talking a lot about safety tonight, how to be safe and make our homes, our community, and ourselves safe.  The lesson to take away from tonight's discussion is twofold; learn the skills of safety and exercise common sense.

What do we mean by the skills of safety?  We're talking about learning to find the emergency escape doors and windows in a building like this one.  Whenever you enter a building, make that your first observation.  In an emergency, how would you evacuate?  Where are the fire alarms?  Where are the fire extinguishers located?  Do you know what type they are?  Do you know how to use them.  These questions should be in the back of your mind whenever you enter an unfamiliar building.

Training your mind to think safety is one lesson.  The second is being careful and using common sense.  By being careful and using your common sense, you're not likely to get hit by a car while crossing the street.  Still, a lot of kids are killed every year because they thought they could beat a car.  Others die in accidents around the home that could have been prevented with a little more forethought.  Still others get trapped in their burning homes, partly because they hadn't planned escape routes.

Safety is not the most exciting topic in the world, but it's a vital one for all of us to learn and to pass on to our younger brothers and sisters, friends and fellow Scouts.  Boring or not, the skills of safety are important.  They may even save your life or that of someone you love.

Good night, gentlemen.