Altenhofen gets car seat org’s lifetime achievement award

WASHINGTON — Local paramedic and longtime Iowa Child Passenger Safety Seat Technician Instructor Katrina Altenhofen was honored at the annual Iowa Child Passenger Safety Conference in Des Moines May 2, with the group’s 2025 lifetime achievement award.

Altenhofen’s recognition comes years after she took the first-ever national Child Passenger Safety Seat (CPS) training in 1997, and convinced the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau Chief at that time to help fund a child passenger safety seat program in Iowa which would include certification training for those wanting to be Child Passenger Safety Seat technicians. By 2000, there was a CPS technician in all 99 counties.

Hundreds of Iowa citizens have since been trained and thousands of child passenger safety seats have been checked across the state.

Altenhofen — who some CPS techs call the “mom” of Iowa’s child passenger safety program — said she was humbled and surprised by the award.

“I actually was in the back of the room, tidying things up and trying to get things ready for the next session,” she said of the award ceremony, where organizers had every technician in attendance stand up, then take their seats as they counted off years of experience. “And of course, I’m standing there because I’m the last person standing, since I started the program, I’ve been there the longest.”

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Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com