Kristi Ruth
Kristi Ruth is a junior in high school from Chariton, Iowa. In 2007, Kristi’s life changed dramatically. She was a farm safety advocate who suddenly found herself an incident survivor.

After her uncle was killed in a rollover incident, Kristi and her brothers constructed a tractor rollover demonstration that they displayed at the Lucas County Fair to raise awareness about tractor safety. When she started back to school in the fall of 2006, her Ag teacher encouraged her to compete in an FFA prepared public speaking contest. She used her tractor safety background to compose a speech addressing the four most common tractor-related hazards: rollovers, runovers, roadway collisions, and the Power Take Off (PTO) shaft. The judges awarded her a gold medal for her heartfelt presentation.

Shortly after, Kristi was drilling postholes to construct a new head chute before calving season began when her arm got pulled into the PTO shaft of a posthole digger. In seconds, she had suffered debilitating injuries and nearly lost her arm. Doctors were able to save her limb but she struggles to complete every day tasks because of her limited range of mobility. Last summer, Kristi spoke at the 4-H County Fair and the Iowa State Fair and displayed the clothes she was wearing at the time of the incident to illustrate the unrelenting destruction caused by the spinning PTO.

Farm Safety 4 Just Kids is proud to add Kristi to their network of Youth Representatives. You can contact Kristi at farmgirlkris@hotmail.com.

Ali Umland
Hi, I am Ali Umland and I live on an acreage in Southeastern Nebraska. We have a small herd of cows and sheep, which I show and raise for projects for both 4-H and FFA. I am the treasurer of my 4-H club, and the Junior Officer Vice President of my FFA chapter. I enjoy being a junior for many 4-H workshops, am in the school band, chorus, and FCCLA. I have participated at the Local FS4JK day since our chapter start ten years ago, having been a counselor the last two years. As I want to be a teacher some day, I feel there is no better place to start than teaching children the dangers in rural communities and how to avoid and correct those problems.