A group of students piled into a Hall County SWAT vehicle and another crowded around the Gainesville K-9 car.
Thursday was Public Safety Day at the Boys & Girls Clubs, and police, fire and SWAT team members came out to talk about drugs, gangs, swimming safety and smoke detectors.
“Every first responder is represented here,” said Royce Woodruff, event coordinator. “It’s best for the students to meet them now rather than later. It’s also great because some might want to be in these professions when they grow up.”
Next to the fire truck, students split up into teams and ran a relay to change and check batteries in a smoke detector.
The kids yelled each other’s names and cheered in a boys versus girls battle.
The girls won by a slim margin.
“The interactive game beats telling them about fire safety in a boring way,” said Jerome Yarbrough, Gainesville’s deputy fire chief.
“They learn when and how to change the battery, and it’s great because they pass it on to their parents.”
Volunteers handed out plastic fire hats, crossword puzzles about car safety, frisbees, mini footballs and pamphlets about gangs and drugs.
“We’re learning how to say ‘no’ to drugs,” said Jimmie Jackson, 7, who attends Fair Street International Baccalaureate World School.
“Also to not cross the road without an adult and always wear a seat belt.”
Jackson was excited to meet Quenn, a German Shepherd who tracks down suspects, seeks missing people and sniffs out narcotics.
“This is my partner,” Jeremy Edge, a K-9 officer for the Gainesville police, said to a group of ooh-ing and ah-ing children. “He goes with me everywhere and even goes home with me.”
Many of the boys were most interested in the rifle and grenade launcher sitting next to the SWAT truck. Jonathan Jackson, a deputy SWAT operator, laughed as the students loaded him with a barrage of questions and asked when he uses the weapons.
“If anything I bring looks weird and cool, they like it. They’re mesmerized when they see guns, and we teach them not to be afraid but that safety goes along with it when adults use them,” he said. “Any opportunity we get to work with the children is important because they really are the future.”
The annual event is just another way for safety officials to reach out when they can’t visit students in schools.
“We lose contact in the summer, and the students at the Boys & Girls event come from all the different schools and neighborhoods,” Yarbrough said. “It’s great to help them stay current with safety.”