82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 22, 2000 Gettysburg Senior Citizen Educates People About Environment Mildred displays the curriculum materials that she provided to students who got in volved with Soil and Water Stewardship Day. This event was just one of Mildred’s activi ties as environmental technician for the Conservation District. Working side by side with her husband on their farm for most of her life helps Mildred Musselman relate to farmers working with the Conservation District. It also motivates her to educate the community about conservation. National Infant Immunization Week Reminds Parents LOU ANN GOOD Lancaster Farming Staff LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.) Caring parents do what ever possible to protect their children from situations that could cause brain damage, bodily injury, or death. Except, perhaps, they don’t make sure that all immunizations are up to date. Some parents, fearful of side effects and who may lack infor mation on immunization, are skeptical of the need for immun ization and do not have children vaccinated against tetanus, diphtheria, polio, measles, mumps, Hib, chicken pox, and hepatitis B. This puts their children at risk not only for contracting the illnesses but also complications from the diseases, which can cause seizures, brain damage, deafness, other physical handi caps and even death. It also can cause others to contract these vaccine-preventable diseases. “You gave them life pro tect it,” is the motto for the Na tional Immunization Week, April 16-22. National Infant Im munization week gives the Lan- Tom Gave caster County Immunization Coalition the opportunity to bring to the community an in creased awareness for the need to vaccinate children at an early age. Infant immunization is simple and inexpensive. Failure to see that children are properly vaccinated is often based on myths, according to Elaine Zuck, nurse at the Lan caster County site of the Pa. De partment of Health. Some of these myths include the follow ing: • “I’ve never seen these dis eases and I don’t think they exist anymore.” “The reason few children con tract polio, diphtheria, and many of the formerly common childhood diseases is because of immunization. Decrease the rate of immunization, and the inci dent of disease goes up,” Zuck said. • “Vaccines can make my child sick and might even cause death.” “Vaccines are very safe and effective,” Zuck insists. “It is extremely rare to have signifi cant side effects to vaccines es pecially since the release of the hewer and safer vaccine DTaP, Them Life - Protect IP which causes fewer and milder reactions than the formerly used DTP. Experience and research does not support the myth that vaccines cause the disease they are intended to prevent.” • “Vaccines hurt and I hate to see my child get a shot.” The reality is that temporary discomfort from an injection is soon forgotten and nothing com pared to the excruciating pain of contracting one of the diseases. Before attending school, Pennsylvania law requires that children must have had the fol lowing immunizations: four doses of tetanus and diphtheria, three doses of polio, two doses of measles, one dose of mumps and rubella, and three doses of hepa titis B. The only exemptions from this law are for medical or religious beliefs. The medical profession be lieves that parents who shun im munizations because of religious beliefs should reconsider. They have seen heart-rending stories of babies and children who die or are permanently damaged be cause they were not immunized. Although immunizations are (Turn to Pag* B 4) JAYNE SEBRIGHT Lancaster Farming Staff GETTYSBURG (Adams Co.) Mildred Musselman gets up at 5:30 a.m. every morning, goes to work from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Adams County Conserva tion District, and then goes home to work in her rock garden and lawn for most of the eve ning. Maintaining the energy of a 25 year old, Mildred went to work at the Conservation Dis trict in 1989 when she turned 65 years old. Last year was her tenth year anniversary with the District. Mildred and her husband Arthur farmed on their 162-acre farm in Gettysburg until Arthur passed away in 1985. raised grain and pouh r y “j was involved in every asp„- c t 0 f tic farm,” said Mildred. After Arthur’s death, Mildred began renting the farm to a local farmer. Then, in 1989, the farmer who was renting her farm encouraged her to apply at the Conservation District. “He told me they needed someone down there to work with the farmers,” said Mildred. “Since I was a farmer, he thought I would be able to com municate well with other farm ers.” Mildred’s first job at the Dis trict was to do Chesapeake Bay assessments for Adams County farmers. “I started out inter viewing farmers and collecting information about their opera tions.” Shortly after starting, she became a Chesapeake Bay tech nician and helped farmers de velop conservation plans. “I pares the third dose of DTap for 8-month-old Austin held by his mother Bridy Mullikin, Lancaster. always enjoyed working with the fanners because they spoke my language and I spoke theirs,” she said. Just last year Mildred switched responsibilities after working as a Chesapeake Bay technician for ten years to become an environmental tech nician. Now, instead of working with farmers, she’ll be educating students, teachers, and the com munity about conservation a- J environmental issues. “With my new position, I’ll be able to educate the general public on environmental issues related to farming,” said Mil dred. ,“TS his will be my chance to giv- c back to the farm immu nity.” Mildwi 1 is one of seven full tine employees at the District. About 50 percent of the work done there involves farmers in some way. Mildred is the first to work solely with the community and education programs. Some of her responsibilities will include promoting Soil and Water Stewardship Day and Earth Day. For Soil and Water Stewardship Day, she supplied schools with educational materi als for the students to study prior to attending environmen tal camps. With Earth Day quickly ap proaching, Mildred has been busy distributing seeds to senior citizens clubs throughout the county and coordinating a tree seedling sale. She also helped the Watershed Alliance of Adams County monitor local stream water to solve environ mental problems. “I just completed plans for a (Turn to Page B 3)
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