Police dogs, helicopter, fire sprinklers keep kids entertained
Jun 21, 2009 - 04:00 PM
By Jillian Follert
WHITBY -- Aside from telling their kids to “get out quickly” if there’s fire, the Liu family doesn’t have much of an escape plan in place.
“I’m a little embarrassed about it now that I hear all the things we should be telling them,” said Patricia Liu, mother to Caleb 6 and Grace, 4. “We’ve told them to feel the door handles to see if they’re hot, that kind of thing, but there’s a lot more to it.”
The Lius were among hundreds of families who braved the rain to take in the third annual Whitby Community Safety Day on Saturday.
While chatting with local firefighters and visiting exhibits like the Fire Safety House and fire prevention display, the Whitby family planned a post-escape meeting spot and learned how to crawl on the ground to avoid smoke.
The popular community event, which drew more than 3,000 attendees last year, is hosted by Whitby Fire and Emergency Services, Durham EMS, Durham Regional Police Services and Whitby Hydro
This year’s Community Safety Day featured more than 50 community safety displays ranging from crime prevention, to how to ride the school bus. There were also plenty of interactive options -- like a home sprinkler trailer where raincoat clad kids could get drenched, pint sized cars to drive in the Kids Safety Village, and a junior fire fighting challenge.
Emergency services personnel put on demonstrations that included police K9 dogs and firefighter rope rescues, while paramedics helped kids patch up injured stuffed animals at the Teddy Bear Clinic.
“It’s a good chance for the kids to meet the police and firefighters and learn about what they do,” said parent John Hayes, as his sons paid rapt attention to the K9 demonstration. “They would never normally get a chance to climb in a police helicopter or see one of these dogs up close, it’s really exciting for them.”
For his older son, seven-year-old Tyler Hayes, the event even inspired some future career plans.
“I think I maybe want to be a policeman when I grow up,” he mused. “I want to help people and live with one of the (police) dogs.”
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