BELFAIR HERALD

The annual Safety Days event took place June 5 and 6 at Sand Hill Elementary School and June 8 and 9 at Belfair Elementary, teaching kids safety skills that will serve them now and in the future.

North Mason Regional Fire Authority Chief Beau Bakken has been conducting Safety Days for 26 years, and he said it is always his favorite week of the year.

"Of the 365 days that I'm on duty per year, these are the best four I have throughout the entire year," Bakken told the Herald. "In most situations, we're out there seeing some really tough conditions and situations with responding to emergencies and we're glad that we can be there for that, but to be here in a proactive stance working with the youth of this

community and seeing their eyes light up and them looking at their firefighters and going hey, you do care about us, you do want to make sure we're safe."

Last year, Bakken said after not being able to host the event in 2020 and 2021, the kids are almost caught up from COVID when they weren't able to learn some of the skills taught at Safety Days.

There were booths about fire safety and what to do if there is a fire in the house or outside of a bedroom and CPR training. There were also booths from the Mason County Sheriff's Office about boating safety, Mason County PUD 3 about how to deal with electrical power lines, Mason Transit Authority about bus safety and Hood Canal Communications hosted a booth about internet safety. The most popular station, as usual, is the root beer float station.

Bakken worked in the fire safety trailer, helping kids know what to do if the door to their room has a hot handle or smoke begins to seep in under the door.

"What is huge about a lot of our stations is it's not just lecture," Bakken said. "It's one thing to just sit there and say, 'OK kids, here's step one, two and three.' We're making it real-life situation, we've got smoke coming out from underneath the door, we've got the smoke detector going off, we've got a hot door that they're feeling and so we're trying to make it as lifelike as we possibly can at a multitude of our stations, especially the trailer, because when you encounter that and you see it, oh my gosh, that lecture could dissipate, however the hands-on and the repetitive practice, it sets in and sinks in even better."

Emergency Prevention Specialist Abe Gardner participated in his second Safety Days event said the goal of this event would be to "work ourselves out of jobs."

"As much proactive interventions and education on what to do in case you do face an emergency and or how to prevent an emergency," Gardner told the Journal. "I think we're really incredibly grateful that all the partners are willing to get on board with us and make sure that we're able to set our community's kids up for success."

Gardner said the reception has been great from the schools and the kids, including Sand Hill Principal Jason Swaser telling Gardner that one family had appointments during Safety Days, but they rescheduled so their kids wouldn't miss Safety Days.

"I love it, it's probably the most fun week of my job, most fun week of the year," Gardner said. "We have a great time."

Author Bio

Matt Baide, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
Email: [email protected]

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