Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The public had an opportunity to interact with first responders, medical and mental health providers and others during the 21st Family Safety Day on Saturday in Central Park.
While kids got to run an obstacle course, grab some swag like stickers and water bottles and check out an air ambulance and so much more, adults found plenty of information to take with them and demonstrations to observe.
After the first hour of the scheduled three-hour event, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief’s Assistant Heather Vogts said, “I think it’s going really good. It kind of started out slow, but with the new time (9 a.m. to noon) I think the families are getting up and getting out and I think we’re having a good turnout.”
There was a lot of things going on, she agreed.
“So, firewise, we have our fire tent that has a whole bunch of equipment in it and it’s all labeled so everyone can the names and all of that,” Vogts said. “We have our smoke trailer, which kind of simulates getting low when you hear the alarms go off and when you see smoke. You get to climb out the window with some help.”
The fire territory’s Junior Firefighter Challenge was back, which always draws a line of kids to run the obstacle course.
“We have all our vendors here. It’s just turning out to be a really good morning so far,” she said.
Near the Junior Firefighter Challenge was the National Weather Service table.
Lonnie Fisher, meteorologist with the National Weather Service - Northern Indiana, said, “We’re talking about all kinds of weather safety, ranging from lightning, thunderstorms - and, of course, hopefully it stays away, but winter eventually. We’re just trying to educate everybody on how to be safe, how to be prepared.”
So far this year, he said the summer has been really warm, really muggy and “right now we’re getting a bit of a break, at least from the humidity. But we need the rain, which we may have coming here in a little bit.”
The rain did start at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, halfway through Family Safety Day.
“By and large, we need the rain, that’s the big thing. But it’ll stay on the warmer side. I’m sure down the road here it’ll get a little stormy and winter will make its presence known,” Fisher stated.
Asked what one of the biggest misconceptions about weather and weather preparedness is, he said you can never be too prepared.
“The more you are prepared - even if it’s not going to happen - you’re better off to be (prepared) than to be surprised by something,” he said. “... You always want to be ready, listen to the warnings and take shelter as soon as you can because you never know what Mother Nature is going to do.”
Kip Shuter, Kosciusko County Emergency Management Agency director, said he and EMA Coordinator Gene Reed were talking to the public about preparedness.
“The thing a lot of people probably don’t know is September is National Preparedness Month. So we’re here as Emergency Management to make sure that people are prepared and that they have the information to know how to be able to take care of themselves, to take care of their family, to take care of their neighborhood and community,” Shuter said.
They were giving away free things for people to be able to be prepared, such as a drawing for a free weather radio.
“We’re also having people sign up if they would like to belong and join our Community Emergency Response Team (CERT),” he said. “So, we’re putting all that information out here and hoping to educate people on what it is to be prepared in case of an emergency or disaster.”
For at least the last 10 years of Family Safety Day, Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital has offered kids an opportunity to do “Gummy Surgery.”
Jennifer Byall, director of surgery, Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital, said, “We’re just having fun with the kids, just giving a little simulation of what it’s like to do laparoscopic surgery.”
She said the Gummy Surgery was created by some long-retired surgical nurses for an event, and became so popular that Lutheran tries to make it to Family Safety Day every year with it.
Along with that inside the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion, Byall said Lutheran had several other booths at Saturday’s event.
“We’ve brought a whole team today. Lutheran Kosciusko really loves this event. In fact, I thought I saw our CEO running around here, Chad Towner. He really encouraged us, as much as we could, to be here and participate, and we get plenty of volunteers. So we’ve got the emergency department here. They’ve got first aid kits for kids that they can put together. Some teddy bears that the kids can do first aid on themselves. The Birthplace Center is here, one of our nurse midwives is here. Also, MedStat Wellness Center is here. All kinds of information on all the different programs that we do,” Byall explained.
Brandon Cordell, MS4 operator for the stormwater utility of Warsaw, had several items for the children like sunglasses and keychains, while providing some information to their parents.
“Mostly stormwater, pollutants and stormwater - how it gets to our lakes, the river or creeks and other water bodies,” he answered when asked what he was talking to the public about. “And some about erosion and mostly pollutants.”
At the KC Recycling Depot table inside the pavilion, Janelle Meyer, education outreach and marketing coordinator, said, “We’re working on making sure people are aware of what to do with their trash and their solid waste. We like to keep things out of the landfills, so teaching them where to take it is a good help for our community.”
Rachel Perry, a weekend advocate for The Beaman Home, the local domestic violence shelter, explained they have case managers, advocate and a residential manager.
“But my job as an advocate is to take crisis calls. So if someone is in danger, they call us and we get their information and we see if they’re someone that we can help. We have many services, so you can come stay in shelter. We have outreach services. We have counseling. So, we do all sorts of stuff,” she said.
The Beaman Home also has Mary Ann’s Place. It’s a thrift store where people can donate to with all the proceeds going back to the shelter.
With Family Safety Day being a kid-friendly event, Perry said they really wanted to talk about friendship and the importance of safety in friendship.
“A lot of kids don’t know that some actions aren’t that great in a friendship. They don’t know how to act when someone isn’t being so kind. So we have lots of sheets telling about what friendship is. We have some sheets about who you can talk to maybe when friendship is going so well,” Perry said. “We also have adult-focused stuff as well - so more about who we are, what we do, who we can do and a lot of talk about boundaries, healthy and unhealthy.”
