SERVPRO'S canned food and coat drive

Lets make this one count! SERVPRO will be collecting food and clothing until the end of December!Come out and support our canned food and coat drive! Drop off donations at participating locations.

Winter Ready

GREAT TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR HOUSE WINTER READY!

Ducts

It's the time of year when homes have their highest energy demand of the year. Heating accounts for 34% of all annual utility usage and is part of what makes an average home twice the emitter of carbon dioxide emissions as a vehicle. Here is a way to reduce the demand for expensive space heating.

Check the ducts. To ensure that as much warm air as possible is delivered through your central system, check the ductwork and wrap any leaks with duct mastic. Distribution losses (what's lost while air is transported from your furnace through ductwork to the vents) often amounts to 30%. So, sealing ductwork could increase efficiency and the warm air you receive considerably ... keeping you warmer and making your furnace work less.

More Tips for Weathering the Winter

• Consider using non-toxic de-icing substances such as clean clay cat litter, sand, or fireplace/stove ash to prevent hazardous waste from chemicals. Chemical de-icers can be hazardous to your pets, your trees and shrubs, and the environment. Antifreeze that leak from car engines and chemical snow melters on driveways, roads, and runways can pollute surface waters and groundwater through the soil. 

• Winterize your vehicle by checking your air filter and fluid levels, checking tires for tread wear and proper inflation, and checking the condition of your windshield wipers. Ensuring your vehicle is ready for weather changes will reduce damage, which prevents waste from broken parts, and will keep you safe on the road.

• If you have a wood-burning fireplace, save your ashes in a tin instead of throwing them away. Cold wood ashes can be mixed in your compost heap to create a valuable soil amendment that provides nutrients to your garden.

• Use electric snow removal products rather than gasoline-powered ones. While electric products consume energy, they do not emit greenhouse gases. As alternatives, use snow shovels, ice crackers, and brooms to clear snow from your sidewalk, porch, or driveway.

• Close the recycling loop. Many articles of clothing, such as jackets, scarves, gloves, and boots, are now made from recycled materials. Most fleece products are made from recycled plastic soda bottles, and certain clothing and shoe manufacturers use recycled cotton scraps and rubber tires to make their products.

• Winter storms often cause power outages. Prevent waste by keeping rechargeable batteries rather than disposable ones stored throughout your house with your flashlights. If you do use disposable batteries, prevent hazardous waste by buying batteries with low mercury content.

• Recycle old newspapers by making rolled paper logs for your fireplace. Roll newspaper sheets around a broom stick until your log is the desired size, then soak your log thoroughly in water. Dry the log overnight and use like ordinary wood. Always follow proper safety precautions when burning anything around your home.

• To make sure your heating system (boiler, furnace or heat pump) is operating at its most efficient, it is a good idea to have a contractor perform a routine check-up and any necessary maintenance on the equipment before freezing weather drives up your energy bill.

-Denea Duran

Content Credit: http://www.epa.gov/Region3/winter/#saving

Photo Credit: http://www.epa.gov/Region3/winter/#saving

Keep yourself Flu Free

It seems like everywhere I turn someone is sick with the flu. Here are a few tips to keep you FLU-FREE! 

Flu is a serious contagious disease that can lead to hospitalization and even death.

CDC urges you to take the following actions to protect yourself and others from influenza (the flu):

Take time to get a flu vaccine.

• CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against flu viruses.
• While there are many different flu viruses, a flu vaccine protects against the three viruses that research suggests will be most common. (See upcoming season’s Vaccine Virus Selection for this season’s vaccine composition.)
• Everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu vaccine as soon as the current season's vaccines are available.
• Vaccination of high risk persons is especially important to decrease their risk of severe flu illness.
• People at high risk of serious flu complications include young children,pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart and lung disease and people 65 years and older.
• Vaccination also is important for health care workers, and other people who live with or care for high risk people to keep from spreading flu to high risk people.
• Children younger than 6 months are at high risk of serious flu illness, but are too young to be vaccinated. People who care for them should be vaccinated instead.

Take everyday preventive actions to stop the spread of germs.

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)
• While sick, limit contact with others as much as possible to keep from infecting them.

-Denea Duran 

Photo Content: Google Image

Content Credit: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm

Safety Tips for your Thanksgiving Dinner!

Keep your family and home safe on thanksgiving. 

Safety Tips for the Feast

While you get busy in the kitchen, make sure that safety doesn’t get lost in the whirlwind:

• Keep the cooking range free of clutter. Even though you have myriad dishes to prepare, don’t overload a cook top with too many pots and pans. Trying to cook all your dishes at once could cause grease to accidentally spill onto a range top and cause a fire.
• Do not try to hold your child in one arm while cooking with the other. Holding a child while cooking is an invitation for a burn. It’s best to keep your child out of the kitchen while you’re cooking.
• Never put a glass casserole or lid on the stove or over a burner. If it gets hot and explodes, it will send dangerous shards of glass in all directions.
• Do not pour water on a grease fire. Pouring water on a grease fire can cause the fire to spread. In the event of a range-top fire, turn off the burner, put on an oven mitt and smother the flames by carefully sliding a lid onto the pan. Leave the lid in place until the pot or pan is cooled.
• Evaluate appliances wisely and look for the UL mark. When purchasing electric cooking products such as electric knives, slow cookers and food processors, look for the UL mark. The UL mark is one of the most widely recognized and trusted safety symbols among consumers. Manufacturers use it to indicate that a product meets specific safety standards.
• Avoid using a turkey fryer. Because turkey fryers pose a number of distinct safety concerns, including burn and fire hazards, UL does not certify any turkey fryers. If a family decides they must use a turkey fryer this Thanksgiving, UL urges them to be extremely cautious and read its turkey fryer safety tips.
• Keep a clean work surface. Be sure to wash surfaces, utensils, the sink and hands after handling raw food. It’s a good idea to identify one cutting board for raw meats and one for other uses.
• Un-stuff the turkey. According to the USDA, for optimum safety, stuffing a turkey is not recommended. For more even cooking, cook the stuffing outside the bird in a casserole dish until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Thaw the bird with care. If using a frozen turkey, the USDA recommends thawing it in the refrigerator in its original wrapping, in a tray or pan that can catch any juices that may leak.
• Call for help. If you’ve accidentally cooked the giblets inside the turkey, melted the “hock lock” or have any other questions about cooking your Thanksgiving bird, be safe and call the pros at the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline: 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854)

-Denea Duran

Content Credit: http://www.safetyathome.com/seasonal-safety/holiday-safety-articles/thanksgiving-cooking-tips-serving-up-a-side-of-safety/

Photo Credit: Google Image

Fun Friday: Winter Tips

I was just browsing around different articles and came across this very helpful article. I don't think it will get that cold in South Carolina but anything is possible. I guess it is better to be safe than sorry. Enjoy!

Betcha didn’t know…

how to ice proof your car windows. Expecting frost overnight? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water and spray on your car windows at night. In the morning, they should be clear of the icy mess.  How does it work? Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water – preventing water from freezing. What to do if you wake up to an already frozen car? Just spray the mixture on your window and watch it melt.

Betcha didn’t know…

how to prevent your car doors from freezing shut using cooking spray.  Spray cooking spray on the rubber seals around car doors and rub it in with a paper towel, “Doors freeze when snow melts into the seals during the day, and then freezes at night,” says Robert Sinclair Jr. of AAA, The oils in the cooking spray prevent water from melting into the rubber in the first place.

Betcha didn’t know…

this trick for de-icing your frozen car door lock. Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key and the lock to solve the problem.  Why does this work?  Because hand sanitizers contain alcohol, the main ingredient in most commercial de-icers.  Just make sure to use a hand sanitizer that’s 60% alcohol.  Sanitizers with less alcohol than that won’t work. (And guess what…with less than 60% alcohol they won’t sanitize your hands, either!)

Content Credit: http://www.coffeebreakwithlizandkate.com/betcha-didnt-know-how-to-ice-proof-your-car-windows

Photo Credit: http://www.coffeebreakwithlizandkate.com/betcha-didnt-know-how-to-ice-proof-your-car-windows

-Denea Duran 

Helping Others- The Real Meaning of the Holidays

With the holidays approaching there are so many organizations you can volunteer or even donate to, hopefully this blog will put you in the holiday spirit! 

Teach you children the true meaning of the holidays by donating or volunteering during the Christmas season.

SALVATION ARMY

The Salvation Army sponsors many programs to help out the less fortunate during the holiday season such as the Toy Shop, Sharing Trees, Christmas Bear Dressing, Christmas Stocking Program, and the Kettles Program. Visit their site by clicking the link above for more information on how you can help.

HOLIDAY HELPINGS AND HOPE

Palmetto Health's Cancer Center can use your help to bring a little holiday joy to cancer patients during the holiday season.

Through the Holiday Helpings and Hope project, volunteers and donors join to provide 200 food baskets for Thanksgiving and adopt over 100 families cared for by our Cancer Center. Adults and children with cancer and their families directly benefit from this program.

For information, call Holiday Helpings and Hope at 434-4752

THE GIVING TREE

The Giving Tree is a Christmas project sponsored by the James R. Clark Memorial Sickle Cell Foundation and Palmetto Health which serves children (and their siblings) who are affected by sickle cell. To participate, donate a new, unwrapped toy (appropriate for birth through 16 years of age) by December 4, 2002.

For more details on how you or your church, school or civic group can be involved, please call Regina Brown at             (803) 434-3107 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (803) 434-3107      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      .

CELEBRATE THE SEASON AT FRIARSGATE PARK

Bring your single serving snack items, and baby supplies to Friarsgate Park between Dec 1-15. Your donations will be delivered to the Children's Garden Day Care Center which serves homeless children. For more information, call 732-3220

OPERATION SANTA CLAUS

Help the Carolina Children's Home in providing gifts for the children at the home. For informaion, call Amanda O'Cain at             (803) 782-1421 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (803) 782-1421      end_of_the_skype_highlighting       Ext 216.

HARVEST HOPE FOOD DRIVE- DECEMBER 4

Share with those less fortunate by donating food at First Baptist Church (1306 Hampton St.) from 6:30-8:00PM or at the Palmetto GBA (Farrow Rd) from 7:30AM-6:30PM.

-Denea Duran

Content Credit: http://www.columbia4kids.com/christmas/volunteer.php

Thanksgiving Safety Tips

Well it's that time of the year again!With Thanksgiving around the corner here are some safety tips to keep your holidays disaster free! 


THANKSGIVING SAFETY 

The kitchen is the heart of the home, especially at Thanksgiving. Kids love to be involved in holiday preparations. Safety in the kitchen is important, especially on Thanksgiving Day when there is a lot of activity and people at home.

Safety tips

• Stay in the kitchen when you are cooking on the stovetop so you can keep an eye on the food.
• Stay in the home when cooking your turkey and check on it frequently.
• Keep children away from the stove. The stove will be hot and kids should stay 3 feet away.
• Make sure kids stay away from hot food and liquids. The steam or splash from vegetables, gravy or coffee could cause serious burns.
• Keep the floor clear so you don’t trip over kids, toys, pocketbooks or bags.
• Keep knives out of the reach of children.
• Be sure electric cords from an electric knife, coffee maker, plate warmer or mixer are not dangling off the counter within easy reach of a child.
• Keep matches and utility lighters out of the reach of children — up high in a locked cabinet.
• Never leave children alone in room with a lit a candle.
• Make sure your smoke alarms are working. Test them by pushing the test button.

Turkey fryersNFPA discourages the use of outdoor gas-fueled turkey fryers.

Content Credit: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=2117&itemID=49664&URL=Safety%20Information/For%20consumers/Holidays/Thanksgiving%20safety

-Denea Duran