Though people may not know her by name, many remember the image of the dying one-year-old Baylee Almon, being carried from the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by a firefighter after a bomb exploded outside the building in 1995. Today that Pulitzer-Prize winning photograph has taken a new meaning. It has become the logo for the “Protecting People First Foundation,” a national safety campaign to urge the federal government to take more aggressive action in protecting the public from one of the deadliest hazards of a terrorist attack – flying glass.
The foundation was the brainchild of Cote and D’Ambrosio, a Saunderstown-based advertising and public relations firm. The concept came as the company was conducting research for its client, Guardian Bastille of Smithfield. Co-founded by Richard P. Eannarino and John A. Holmes, Jr., the company installs 3M Scotchshield Safety and Security Window Film, a product that protects people from flying glass.
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”(The photograph) is a heart wrenching image that every American recognizes. It has the power to galvanize public attention around the little understood but deadly issue of flying glass hazards,” said Eric Cote, of Cote and D’Ambrosio.
In its research, the agency found that few Americans understood the hazards caused by flying glass. A 1999 Congressional report indicated that many of the deaths and injuries in the bombing were the result of flying glass. According to the agency, the report also said lives would have been saved and injuries reduced if the Murrah Building’s windows were equipped with safety and security window film.
As a result, Cote and his partner Ken D’Ambrosio have spent the last year traveling the country, meeting with leaders of the protective glazing industry and elected officials to promote their agenda. In addition they have garnered the support of Baylee Almon’s mother, Aren Almon-Kok, who will serve as spokesperson for the foundation.
”When we spoke with Aren about flying glass she related her own painful experience with flying glass the day of the bombing,” Cote said. “Not only were the windows in her apartment blown out by the bomb, but she and her family suffered cuts and lacerations from shattered glass as they ran to the Murrah Building after the bombing looking for Baylee.” The child had been in a daycare center in the Murrah building when the bomb exploded.
Cote said Guardian Bastille was also instrumental in getting the organization off the ground by making a $10,000 donation that they later matched with another $10,000.
Finally, after raising more than $100,000 in funding, on March 22, the foundation was launched at the Paradise Early Childhood Development Center, in Washington DC.
The foundation’s announcement at a child-care center was designed to give focus to one the foundation’s initiatives: promoting the safety enhancement at non-profit childcare centers across the country. The foundation is working with the Boston-based Institute for Business and Home Safety, and insurance companies to retrofit child care centers with a series of safety enhancements, including the installation of safety and security film and the fastening of cabinets and heavy objects to walls to prevent them from toppling onto children in the event of a natural disaster.
In addition the foundation will also promote the need to be protected from the flying glass hazard caused by natural disasters.
”When you talk about a terrorist bombing and the flying glass hazards that can result from that, many people might say ‘That’s not going to happen in my community,'” Cote said. “But when you also focus on the death and injury that can result from flying glass caused by natural disasters, you can really get people’s attention, especially those who live in areas prone to hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.”
