[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 13, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        TRIBUTE TO THELMA SIBLEY

                                 ______


                             HON. BOB CARR

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 13, 1994

  Mr. CARR of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
exceptional activism of Mrs. Thelma Sibley, a woman who has suffered 
tragic loss in the death of her 5-year-old daughter Nancy, but who has 
turned her grief into action.
  In early January of this year, Nancy Sibley strangled after the 
drawstring on her coat caught on the spiral slide at her elementary 
school's playground in Ann Arbor, MI. She died the next day. Since 
then, her mother's campaign to require manufacturers to stop making 
drawstrings and other strangulation hazards on children's clothing has 
garnered the support of over 7,400 petitioners, across six States: 
Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Florida, and Texas. Included with 
the signatures that she sent to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and 
Mrs. Tipper Gore was seven pounds of drawstrings cut from children's 
clothing by parents of small children.
  Nancy Sibley's tragic death and her mother's resulting activism have 
reached the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission [CPSC], where a 
major cooperative effort with manufacturers and retailers to remove 
drawstrings from children's clothing was announced on July 7.
  Today, in expressing my admiration and respect for the activism of 
Thelma Sibley, I also want to join her in warning parents across the 
Nation of the hazards of loose strings on children's clothing. The CPSC 
recommends removing the strings immediately, and I urge parents of 
small children to do so. Thank you.

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