Fund pays to teach kids about washing away germs

Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) - Fourth-graders might no longer need to sing the ABC song to memorize the alphabet, but it can still come in handy at the sink.

"Sometimes I sing it twice, if my hands are really dirty," said Andrea Chambers, 10. "If you wash your hands a lot, it can keep you from getting sick and that can save your parents money on medicine."

Andrea and her schoolmates in kindergarten through fourth grade got a refresher course in effective hand-washing recently at Judith Resnik elementary school in Akron, Ohio. The program, "Rub-a-dub-dub scrub those little stubs," was made possible because of a $360 grant from the Millennium Fund for Children.

The hand-washing instruction was done one classroom at a time to coincide with National Hand Washing Awareness Week (the first full week in December). The week was created in 1999 by a Cincinnati physician in response to a flu vaccine shortage.

"Hand-washing is the easiest and cheapest way to stay healthy," said Laurel Celik, Resnik's school nurse. "It is the single most important thing a person can do to stay healthy."

To start the lesson, Celik, a registered nurse and national board certified school nurse, squirted a dollop of GlitterBug Potion in each student's hand and instructed them to rub it in.

"Phew! It smells like fish!" 9-year-old Logan Dusseau proclaimed. "I'm glad we get to wash this off."

The potion contains an ultraviolet fluorescent powder and special hand lotion that, under a black light, shows every part on the hand that is missed during washing.

"It was pretty cool to see the glitter under the light," said Kacie Fehrenbach, 9. "I saw that I need to get under my nails better."

Celik gave the students tips to help them wash their hands more thoroughly _ scrub for about 20 seconds with soap and water; avoid touching the "T-Zone" (eyes, nose and mouth) with dirty hands; wash every time you touch anything dirty and don't touch the faucet handles after washing.

"Using a paper towel to turn off the water is a good idea," said Quintin Carter, 9. "Your hands were dirty when you turned it on, so if you touch them again, you pick up the germs and your hands are dirty again."

The lesson plans for the kindergarten through fourth-grade classes were developed earlier this year, when Resnik's fifth-grade students participated in the project. They worked with Celik, a senior student in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program at Firestone High School and the IB/Advanced Placement science teacher at the high school.

Before the hand-washing instruction was done, the fifth-graders had their hands swabbed after they had washed. The cultures from their hands were placed in a special dish for bacteria study. The science/health teacher taught the students about the scientific process and how to collect data.

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The students also learned about different kinds of germs that may be on their hands, their routes of transmission and how to prevent illness with effective hand-washing. They were taught the proper way to wash, and their hands were cultured again for comparison with the first cultures.

Students in the lower grade levels did not have germ cultures taken from their hands. Instead, only their teachers' hands were swabbed.

Kluuni Ohls, a fourth-grade teacher, said encouraging the students to wash their hands often and teaching them to do it properly is an important lesson that benefits everyone.

"It's a way to prevent so many of them from getting sick, which means they won't have to miss school," Ohls said. "If the students aren't getting sick, they won't pass it on to teachers. I don't worry too much about that because I've been teaching so long (34 years) that I think I'm immune to almost everything."

To find out more about the Millennium Fund or to donate, call 330-376-8522, use the coupon with this story or visit https://www.akroncommunityfdn.org and click on the Family of Funds link.

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THE MILLENNIUM FUND FOR CHILDREN

_A permanent endowment formed in 1999 as a partnership between the Akron Beacon Journal and Akron Community Foundation to provide grants of up to $2,000 each year to nonprofit organizations for programs that work to improve the lives of children.

_219 grants, totaling $331,334, awarded since 1999.

_$754,322 donated since 1999.

_What your donation will buy: A $50 donation will help a refugee child learn English. A $35 donation will buy a year's worth of milk for a needy child. A $20 donation will fill a backpack with healthy food for a child to take home every weekend. A $5 donation will provide a fun-filled day of music, food and games for a child who has witnessed or has been a victim of violence.

Source: Akron Community Foundation

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© 2008, Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio).