County Fire Department helps students ‘Swing into Summer Safety’

Students will “Swing into Summer Safety” thanks to the Prince Edward County Fire Department, Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council and the Toronto Blue Jays.

“The “Swing into Summer Safety” campaign is aimed at improving public safety in Ontario by raising awareness among school-age children and their families about fire safety and other injury prevention tips over the summer,” said Mike Branscombe, the County’s Fire Prevention and Education Officer.

As part of the campaign, a contest was held for County school children to emphasize the importance of summer fire safety. The local launch of the “Swing into Summer Safety” campaign took place Wednesday at the Regent Theatre with Jill Perrault’s class from St. Gregory’s School.

St. Gregory’s students were delighted to watch fire safety shorts with Sparky and Blue Jays baseball on the big screen at the Regent Theatre.

Student Connor Gray’s name had been drawn from among ballots from County elementary schools to win his class a pizza party and the watching of a Blue Jays game on the Regent Theatre’s big screen.

Mayor Robert Quaiff joined the winning class at the Regent to celebrate the Blue Jays Fire Safety Day and participate in the launch. The mayor drew ballots and awarded Blue Jays caps to Kassidy Brown, Connor Gray, Ross Maycock and Ally Careen. Ross Maycock’s name was drawn as winner of the four field level tickets to a 2015 Blue Jays game with VIA Rail travel donated by the County Fire Department.

Winners of draws pose with Sparky, Mayor Quaiff and Mike Branscombe.

Firefighters assisted with the student pizza party, followed by the serving of cake, from Sobeys, and encouraged participants to keep summer fire safety top of mind.

“We are happy to be supporting this great campaign which will help raise awareness of the importance of summer fire safety among the County’s school children” says Fire Chief Scott Manlow. “Thanks to the Regent Theatre’s donations of time and use of their facility, we were able to launch this campaign locally to really help promote the importance of fire safety at an early age.”

The Prince Edward County Fire Department encourages County residents to visit the official “Swing into Summer Safety” campaign website at www.swingintosafety.ca for more information and tips to help stay safe this summer.

Lorrie Schernitzki, of Brighton, was delighted to meet Sparky the Fire Safety Dog while shopping in downtown Picton.