Project Home Mobile Safety Classroom to visit Brenner Children?s Hospital

March 18, 2002

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- On Friday, March 22, Brenner Children''s Hospital and Health Services and the Department of Pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine will host Project HomeSafe’s Mobile Safety Classroom on the campus of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Project HomeSafe is a national firearms safety program touring the country in five mobile classrooms. The van will be located at the main entrance of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center from 1:00 until 4:00 pm on Friday, March 22. Educational materials on how to safely store firearms and free gunlocks will be given out.

“Brenner Children''s Hospital encourages everyone who has a firearm to come by and obtain a free gunlock to help make all homes safe for children,” said Robert H. DuRant, vice-chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “Each year in North Carolina about 19 children are killed in accidental shootings that could have been prevented. An average of 46 children, ages of 10 –19, use a gun to kill themselves in North Carolina each year. If children are playing in homes where firearms are being stored, we encourage parents to get gun locks to give to the owners of those guns.”

The event is free and open to the public.

In addition, the mobile classroom will be located at the Food Lion store at 1000 Waughtown from 9 a.m. until noon on Friday, March 22 and at the Target store at 5420 University Parkway from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 23.

Media Contact for the Medical Center location only: Rae Beasley, (336) 716-6878

Media Relations