NATIONAL PLAYGROUND SAFETY WEEK —
2007 Advocate of the Year
Congratulations Jeanne Sanders
Congratulations to Jeanne Sanders on receiving NPPS’s 2007 Ahren’s Playground Safety Advocate of the Year award! Jeanne is a Training and Education Consultant in the Division of Child Care and Development at the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS). She has an RN and MS in Nursing. She is certified SAFE through the National Program for Playground Safety and a CPSI.
Mrs. Sanders founded the Virginia SAFE Playground Committee in 1995. The committee had been responsible for raising statewide awareness about playground safety in child care facilities, elementary schools, and park and recreation departments. Jeanne was responsible for leading the group to develop the Playground Safety Resource Manual in 1997 which was revised in 2000. The manual was given to all public child care, elementary schools, and park and recreation departments in the state. She has also been an active NPPS board member since 1995.
Jeanne, with the Department of Education developed a manuscript in 2003 entitled, From Playgrounds to Play/Learning Environments. Each year, she conducts statewide playground safety classes for child care providers and for licensing inspectors, child care health consultants and others as needed. It is difficult to ascertain how many thousands of children she has made safer on playgrounds throughout the state of Virginia.
Congratulations to Jeanne Sanders for creating and encouraging SAFE play areas for children!
