Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
This year, Camp HERO (Honor, Excellence, Respect, Opportunity) has grown to about 240 kids registered for the camp.
Sgt. Doug Light, public information officer for the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, said the number is up considerably from last year. He believes the number of kids capped off at about 180 last year, but he doesn’t have an official head count.
Camp HERO allows kids to see first responders as regular people and build trust between the kids and first responders.
“A lot of it is to give them a glimpse of what it’s like to be a first responder. And then there’s the educational piece, where they have the opportunity to learn something like CPR or stop the bleed,” he said, noting it’s also a possible tool in recruiting future heros.
A number of agencies are involved with Camp Hero as Light listed Indiana State Police, KCSO, Syracuse Police Department, Mentone PD, Warsaw PD and Warsaw-Wayne Township, Milford and Tippecanoe Township fire departments were among the agencies that were at the fairgrounds Tuesday.
“When you look around, there’s not one department or one individual that makes this happen,” Light said. “This happens because we live in a great community. I mean, that’s ... you can’t really say it any better than that. I mean this is how something like this happens: you live in a great community, you have great community support and then you have all these different entities that work so well together and so when you come up with an idea like Camp HERO, everybody’s like ‘I’m in. I want to help.’ That’s what you get when you build something like this.”
Light highlighted one of the benefits of the three-day camp.
Because CPR is taught at Camp HERO, a child who attended the event called 911 and helped relay information to his dad who had to do CPR.
“And he learned that from Camp HERO. He learned how to call 911. He knew about CPR. He was able to help his dad, so things like that are valueable. And so hopefully, all these kids are bringing something back from these three days,” Light said.
During the three-day camp, kids will go through rotations to do different stations.
On Tuesday, were able to go through eight stations. Something new this year were campers were able to learn self-defense techniques. Also, kids were able to learn about first aid and CPR, how Kosciusko County Dispatch works, EVO, learn about gun safety, do a driving under the influence and impairment obstacle course and ironman/ironwoman obstacle course. Tuesday ended with a tug-of-war competition.
Today is a dedicated fire day, Light said, so pretty much every piece of fire equipment will be at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds for the camp. The day will start out with a mock crash and Lutheran Air will land.
“And then we’ll just get into all the different aspects of firefighting, let the kids fire the hoses,” he said. Today’s events include an obstacle course, ladder demo, a bucket brigade, tech rescue and extrication demo.
Today will end with a big water fight.
Thursday will start out with K9, scuba diving and SWAT demos. Then kids will be able to go through anti-bullying, internet crime, conservation, crime scene, vaping, trial and Rise up stations.
