What Do You Do With Alert1 Kids in the Office?

What do you get when you combine kids, games, learning, medical alerts, and a dash of cuteness? You get Alert1’s Bring Your Kid to Work Day in Williamsport, PA.

Our Alert1 children spent the day learning what it is like to save lives every day. They walked away with an increased empathy towards their parents and the seniors in their life, and we got adorable artwork and video to share with you.

The kids started their day at Alert1 like the start of any new business.  Making the rules!  These rules could be anything that they wanted and there were no limits. 

It was interesting to see how hard it was for the kids to think of their own rules - it’s not too often that kids are handed the reins of control.

The kids started with creating rules they would like to have at school.  Once they each had written their ideas down we came together as a group to go over them.  Working together, the kids created rules fit for a company. Some of our favorites included:

o   You must take a nap at your desk

o   No telling people what to do

o   Be kind

I don’t know about you, but I would love to take a nap at my desk every day!  After deciding on their top 3 rules, we put them on signs and displayed them for everyone to see.

What would a company be without a logo?  When given the chance to redesign our Alert1 logo, what would our kids come up with? We put the kids’ design skills to the test and challenged them to design a logo that encompassed Alert1’s mission.

The kids gathered their art supplies, armed themselves with their knowledge of Alert1, and let their creative ideas flow. 

After everyone finished, we hung their unique and wonderful ideas on the wall.  Each kid voted for his or her favorite new logo and there was a clear winner.

Congratulations to… drum roll please… Paige!  She came up with the great design of a helping hand that says Alert1 inside. 

One of the most important things that we do here at Alert1 is taking care of our members. Doing that requires putting ourselves in their shoes.

To help the kids understand what seniors have to go through on a daily basis, we created an agility course.  However, this agility course was unlike any other – it was designed to simulate what it’s like to have an aging body.

The kids put on three devices:

1.       To replicate loss of hearing, they wore noise cancelling headphones. 

2.       To simulate loss of sight, they wore dark sunglasses covered in petroleum jelly

3.       To replicate arthritis and stiffening joints, they wore thick gardening gloves.

The course was filled with everyday tasks.  The kids had to:

1.       Get dressed in a button down shirt and hat

2.       Navigate through chairs and the couch

3.       Throw away the trash

4.       Open up a pickle jar

5.       Sort their medications (we used M&M’s for this)

The children quickly learned that it was not as easy as they thought it would be.  They wanted to keep trying again to see if they could beat their previous time. The next time these kids interact with a senior in their lives, we hope they remember this experience and practice more patience.

Most of the kids already knew what we did here at Alert1. Alert1 medical alerts provides a button to push if you ever need help.  However, they seemed to be unclear about what happened after the button was pushed.  

The answer to that is simple: a trained Command Center representative comes on the line to ask if you need help. If the answer is yes, we can call anyone on your custom responder list or 911 directly. We stay on the line with you until help arrives.

To show you what they learned, the kids put together the following commercial.  The kids did the acting, directing, and videography. We put it together into this video clip for you to enjoy.

 

We had our Alert1 kids sit with a teammate and listen to some phone calls with our members.  They noticed that we ask our members to test their button at least once a month.  This is both to make sure the system works properly and also to make the button less scary. Our operators are there to help with everything – it doesn’t have to be a fall emergency! They love to hear from our members.

For the final part of their day, we had the Alert1 kids press our medical alert buttons to practice.  Each kid took turns testing the different devices we have.  They loved hearing from our operators, who chatted with them for a moment before saying goodbye. 

So what do you get when you combine kids, games, learning, a dash of cuteness, and medical alerts?  A wonderful day filled with kids learning, laughing and understanding what seniors go through. 

The kids learned what happens when you push your Alert1 button, what we do in the main office, and what some of our members go through on a daily basis. They learned that daily tasks, which they may find easy, are not quite so easy for others. 

We hope that they had as much fun as we did, and that these lessons stick with them. Who knows, maybe there will be a quiz next year!