How to you make 100 little Spring Jr. Lions happy and keep them safe? If you’re Randall Reed’s Planet Ford, you give them 100 brand new football helmets.
When Randall Reed, Owner, Chuck Kramer, Planet Ford in Humble GM/OP, and Shawn Burns, Planet Ford in Spring GM/OP, heard pee wee football players were playing in old and potentially unsafe helmets, the Reed family and dealerships called a timeout.
“We went out and immediately purchased 100 helmets for the upcoming Spring Jr. Lions football season,” said Mr. Kramer. “We are happy to see kids getting outdoors, getting healthy exercise and having fun,” said Mr. Reed. “We were honored to be able to chip in to ensure the kids were safe out there on the field.”
Mr. Burns agrees, “We all have children, and we all know how important it is to take the proper precautions, such as the right equipment when playing sports.” The numbers bear that out. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year U.S. emergency departments treat an estimated 135,000 children ages 5 to 18 for sports-related brain injuries.
Many of the injuries are concussions, and the children recover. However, the prognosis for children who suffer repeat concussions, even mild ones, is considered part of the great unknown. Experts say, repeat concussions could put a child at risk for crippling conditions including: dementia, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders that require neurosurgery. That’s not something most people are pondering on the sidelines of a peewee football game.
Overall, more than 1.7 million people a year injure their brains in an accident, a fall or on the playing field. About 75 percent of these brain injuries are concussions or other milder injuries. But some are deadly. About 52,000 people a year die from brain injuries and 275,000 are hospitalized. At the end of the day, Mr. Kramer says, “It is about keeping our children safe and injury free.”
To learn more about children’s sports safety, you can visit sites such as WebMD. To learn more about Planet Ford in Spring on I-45 (serving The Woodlands, Aldine, Cypress, Houston areas) and Planet Ford in Humble on Hwy. 59 (serving Kingwood, Atascocita, Katy and Houston areas), visit www.PlanetFord.com.