The Washington C.H. Fire Department (WFD) recently announced its annual fire safety education program and needs the community to help in bringing this important information to the children of the community.
For years, the WFD has been deeply committed to a fire safety program specifically targeted to children, featuring the character, Firepup®. In cooperation with the department, citizens and businesses will help the department provide an assortment of fire safety educational materials to local children. These materials are distributed in our schools, at safety fairs, through public presentations, and to children when they visit the fire stations.
“This is something we have always done here, we try to help out as much as we can,” WFD Chief Tom Youtz said during an interview Tuesday. “We have dealt with many fires already this year. Any that I can help prevent ahead of time I would love to. A lot of kids remember the things we show them. We do tours through the firehouse all the time and are more than willing to talk with any of the kids. We want to make sure that they get their questions answered. We have limited time and money though and in this position I have to make decisions on what to do with the money given to the department. The importance of educating the kids is high and this is a great way to bring that information to them.”
All educational materials are designed exclusively by National Fire Safety Council, Inc., a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit charitable organization. NFSC, Inc. is the largest distributor of fire and life safety materials for children in the U.S. Funding of these materials (under the charter of this organization) is done through charitable contributions.
Local contributions would provide age-specific 24-page manuals for preschool through sixth grade pamphlets about smoke alarms, fire escape plans, safe meeting places, babysitters’ safety, firefighter sticker badges, fire hats and many other items used to teach the fundamentals of fire and life safety, and burn prevention.
“We are are limited on manpower that we have here,” Youtz said. “So this does help us out. We want to get out into the schools as much as possible. I run four man crews and we all enjoy getting out into the community and talking to these kids, but the only time they can really do that is when they are working here. If they get a call, then we are tied up doing our job and we run out of time to get out into the community. These resources are something we can drop off to the schools and they can use to cover fire safety.”
In order to cover the cost of these materials, the WFD and National Fire Safety Council, Inc., are turning to leaders of the community for help. Sponsors are needed to help provide this annual program to the children, adults, and seniors in our community.
Supporters of this program will have their contributions acknowledged and specifically named on the prestige page of all fire safety activity manuals under the heading “PROVIDED BY THE PEOPLE WHO CARE.” All tax deductible checks can be made payable to National Fire Safety Council, Inc. Federal tax ID number: 38-2292422 and mailed to: Firepup® Program, 225 E Market St., Washington Court House, OH 43160.
Youtz would like to thank everyone in advance for their generous support of this program. Through the partnership in providing these materials to school children they will be able to continue to work on their goal of making the community safer for all of our citizens.
