The first full week of April each year is designated as Window Safety Week – a time to focus on simple tips to keep children safe around windows. This year, Window Safety Week will be observed April 7-13, so there’s plenty of time to consider how you’d like to help spread the word of window safety. As an FGIA member, it’s in your company’s best interest to foster only the most positive interactions with your products – both for your customers and employees. For one FGIA member company, they’ve taken their commitment to safety to the next level with far reaching benefits.

MI Windows and Doors in Gratz, PA, came up with a fun and interactive way to reinforce the message of window safety by hosting a coloring contest with their employees’ children and grandchildren. By getting employees’ families involved, they’ve extended the message of window safety from the plant floor to family homes.

The Window Safety Activity Book outlines tips through mazes, word searches and other interactive elements that even young ones can understand. Plus, MI Windows and Doors incentivizes engagement by offering prizes for participating! This year, employees who submit a coloring page will be entered into a raffle for tickets to Hershey Park.

Is this something your company could implement, too? What incentives would your staff find appealing – a basket with stuffies and crayons for their kids, a Starbucks gift card for extra coffee after long nights with a newborn, or perhaps an extra hour of vacation to spend more time with their family? Would your team have other ideas for how to engage your employees (and even customers) during Window Safety Week?

Whatever your plans, be sure to share the following tips to prevent accidental falls.

1. When young children are around, keep windows closed and locked.
2. When opening a window for ventilation, use those located out of a child’s reach.
3. Don’t place furniture near windows to prevent children from climbing to an open window.
4. Don’t allow children to jump on beds or other furniture to help reduce potential falls.
5. Don’t rely on insect screens to prevent a window fall. Insect screens are designed to keep bugs out, not to keep children in the home.
6. Supervise children to keep child’s play away from windows, balconies or patio doors.
7. Install ASTM F2090-compliant devices designed to limit how far a window will open to help prevent a fall.

A new resource pertaining to window safety is now available. A technical bulletin has been released in collaborative partnership between FGIA and WDMA. The purpose of this document, AAMA/WDMA TB-24-01, is to clarify the definition of a window opening control device (WOCD) to promote greater understanding of the role of WOCDs and provide an understanding of a WOCD’s function. Download AAMA/WDMA TB-24-01 now in the FGIA Online Store.

If you implement your own Window Safety Week campaign, please let us know. We’d love to share your story with other members and the industry. Thanks, as always, for helping us spread the word of window safety. One life saved makes all of our effort worth it!