Family Safety Day Planned Sept. 7

August 28, 2019 at 10:46 p.m.

By Amanda [email protected]

Mark your calendar for Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory's annual Family Safety Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 7 in Central Park.

The event is expected to draw a crowd of 3,000 and has been happening for nearly 20 years.

The event started out focusing on Halloween costume safety after a child's costume grazed a lit decoration and went up in flames, Fire Territory Administrative Assistant Shirley Fetrow recalled. A woman had reached out after the incident and asked the fire department to help bring awareness to the dangers.

Fetrow has been helping with the annual Family Safety Day since its beginning and said it's continued to grow each year.

"It gives people a better chance to understand a wide variety of the things that can get them in trouble at home," Battalion Chief Aaron Bolinger said. "Things parents learn to talk to their children about. Like playing with a gas can, cooking at home and causing a fire."

There will be many hands-on events for families throughout the day to teach that besides the fire department. KC Recycling will be doing a chemical comparison with household chemicals and a lookalike game to see if children can spot the difference between what is poison or something they are allowed to handle.

Kosciusko Community Hospital will provide a make-and-take first aid kit; Lutheran will again have its gummy worm surgery where kids can use a medical device to extract gummy worms. The street department will be there teaching crosswalk safety; Kosciusko REMC will be giving bucket truck rides; the fire department will demonstrate the jaws of life; a bike rodeo will be on tap; and kids can get their hands messy and help paint a snowplow.

The police law dogs will be at the event, and both Parkview's Samaritan and Lutheran's Air helicopters will fly in. The dive team will be giving boat rides.

A special presentation that WWFT has had booked for the last two years to come here is Jeff Owens with the “Kasey the Fire Dog” show. The program is sponsored by Koorsen Fire & Security and is run by Owens, who is a retired firefighter. The program started in 1995 to bring fire and life safety skills to children. Owens uses black labrador retrievers, songs and demonstrations to teach kids how to stop, drop and roll, how to feel a door to see if it's hot before opening it, to know two ways out of every room, to crawl under smoke to escape and other lessons.

Fetrow said Owens travels all around the country with his presentation, and they are very excited to have him here this year.

The day is planned to be a hands-on day of education, fun, freebies and includes more than is listed here. The event is free.



Mark your calendar for Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory's annual Family Safety Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 7 in Central Park.

The event is expected to draw a crowd of 3,000 and has been happening for nearly 20 years.

The event started out focusing on Halloween costume safety after a child's costume grazed a lit decoration and went up in flames, Fire Territory Administrative Assistant Shirley Fetrow recalled. A woman had reached out after the incident and asked the fire department to help bring awareness to the dangers.

Fetrow has been helping with the annual Family Safety Day since its beginning and said it's continued to grow each year.

"It gives people a better chance to understand a wide variety of the things that can get them in trouble at home," Battalion Chief Aaron Bolinger said. "Things parents learn to talk to their children about. Like playing with a gas can, cooking at home and causing a fire."

There will be many hands-on events for families throughout the day to teach that besides the fire department. KC Recycling will be doing a chemical comparison with household chemicals and a lookalike game to see if children can spot the difference between what is poison or something they are allowed to handle.

Kosciusko Community Hospital will provide a make-and-take first aid kit; Lutheran will again have its gummy worm surgery where kids can use a medical device to extract gummy worms. The street department will be there teaching crosswalk safety; Kosciusko REMC will be giving bucket truck rides; the fire department will demonstrate the jaws of life; a bike rodeo will be on tap; and kids can get their hands messy and help paint a snowplow.

The police law dogs will be at the event, and both Parkview's Samaritan and Lutheran's Air helicopters will fly in. The dive team will be giving boat rides.

A special presentation that WWFT has had booked for the last two years to come here is Jeff Owens with the “Kasey the Fire Dog” show. The program is sponsored by Koorsen Fire & Security and is run by Owens, who is a retired firefighter. The program started in 1995 to bring fire and life safety skills to children. Owens uses black labrador retrievers, songs and demonstrations to teach kids how to stop, drop and roll, how to feel a door to see if it's hot before opening it, to know two ways out of every room, to crawl under smoke to escape and other lessons.

Fetrow said Owens travels all around the country with his presentation, and they are very excited to have him here this year.

The day is planned to be a hands-on day of education, fun, freebies and includes more than is listed here. The event is free.



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