A young audience of fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Hazleton's Holy Spirit Academy on Monday (3/29) saw a simulated, but nonetheless riveting, demonstration from PP&L, Inc. about the potential hazards of electricity, a vital commodity of everyday life that many of them previously may have taken for granted.

It's fairly safe to say they won't take their electricity for granted after today. The 30-minute "Hazard Hamlet" presentation by PP&L, Inc. employee and volunteer Dan Pascavage, a transportation mechanic leader in Hazleton, fully commanded their young and restless attention spans.

Clad impressively in protective hard hat, rubber gloves and protective rubber sleeves, and sporting the sturdy overshoes and high-voltage signs identified with his profession -- Pascavage skillfully guided the students through a dozen different hazards of electricity that any one of them could encounter around their homes or in their neighborhoods.

Pascavage, of Delano, Schuylkill County, has been doing the presentation for about eight years. Deliberately and skillfully, he first covered the basics of electricity in terms the students could readily grasp.

"Voltage and current are like water in a garden hose," Pascavage explains. "The voltage is like the pressure that pushes the water out of the house. The higher the pressure (voltage), the more water (current) that can be pushed out.

"Voltage and current can be very dangerous to people," he continues. "You can drink water from a fountain. You could never drink from a fire hose. There is too much water and the pressure is too high. This would hurt you very badly.

"Electricity is like a fire hose. The pressure (voltage) is too high for you to touch safely. If you touch it, you will be hurt."

Once he captured the students' attention with language they could easily understand, Pascavage took them on a tabletop tour of "Hazard Hamlet." In the process, he introduced them to various electrical equipment they might encounter around home or their neighborhoods -- such as overhead lines, transformer stations and utility poles with transformers.

Then, one after the other, he showed the students of Mr. Stan Paulick's science classes a dozen different situations where they could be inadvertently, or carelessly, exposed to electrical hazards. With each simulated hazard, Pascavage used a remote control "zapper" for emphasis, to actually electrify the tabletop models at each stop.

First, there is the fenced-in electric substation, used to modify high voltages into lower voltages that can then be distributed to local factories, schools, churches, stores and homes. Pascavage drives home the point that the safe way to retrieve an errant soccer ball from the substation is to call PP&L, Inc. to get the ball for you.

At stop #2, where a kite string comes into contact with an overhead electricity line, Pascavage emphasizes a point to be repeated throughout the tour of "Hazard Hamlet": Don't become a path for electricity to flow through you to the ground.

Similarly, powerful mini-lessons characterize the other tabletop scenes:

• A tree trimming tool that contacts an overhead line;
• A television antenna that contacts an overhead line;
• A person climbing a utility pole;
• A tool used to clean swimming pools that contacts an overhead line;
• An electric lawn mower that runs over and cuts its power cord;
• A radio that is too near a bathtub and a hair dryer that is too near a sink;
• A broken utility pole that is resting on a crashed car;
• A boom truck with crane that comes in contact with an overhead line;
• A backhoe that comes in contact with an underground power line while digging a trench; and
• A butter knife that is inserted into a plugged-in toaster.

"Many times children at this age don't see the potential dangers around them," said Mrs. Alice Flynn, the principal at Holy Spirit Academy. "So, we're quite appreciative of the kinds of safety and environmental material that PP&L, Inc. can add to our curriculum."

Pascavage said he hopes to instill in the children an appreciation of the fact that "Electricity is amazing and very necessary, but don't play with it."

Martha Herron, PP&L, Inc.'s community development director for the Hazleton area, said the Hazard Hamlet program is one of many programs that the company has provided as part of its "adopt a school" partnership with Holy Spirit Academy. For example, the company has purchased books and has provided volunteer readers for classes at Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In addition, the company has donated books to the school library in honor of "Students of the Month" and has contributed to several of the school's fund-raising efforts for local charities and needy people locally and overseas.

"Community involvement is an important part of PP&L, Inc.'s business practices," said Herron. "Through formal programs and individual employees' efforts, we can enhance the vitality of the communities we are privileged to serve."