Sure, you can catch the bus or get a ride from mom and dad, but what elementary school student wouldn’t want to arrive at school in a fire truck? Thanks to the Broomall Fire Company (BFC), three students from Marple Newtown will get to make a grand entrance to their school this month. Jacqueline Cowan (Worrall Elementary), Jaydenn Shi (Russell Elementary) and (Sophia Chang (Loomis Elementary) were the lucky winners of the BFC’s poster contest held in October in honor of National Fire Prevention week. Each poster was designed with the theme of “Fire Won’t Wait, Plan Your Escape” and the winners will get to go to school on one of BFC’s fire trucks (with permission from their parents of course!)
The BFC kicked off Fire Prevention week in October by visiting each local elementary school to speak to the students. They discussed smoke detectors and what to do in case of a fire in the home such as planning an escape route, opening windows and making sure they understand how to stop, drop and roll. The fire prevention activities wrapped up with their first ever Fire Prevention Poster contest.
Spearheading the contest was BFC member and head of Public Education Ben Fastman. “This was a fun and great way to get our elementary students educated about fire safety,” said Ben. “We are lucky that all of the principals were on board and excited to get their students involved.”
Students in Kindergarten through fifth grade were eligible to compete for the prize and the fire company received 180 poster entries from Marple’s three elementary schools. The second and third place winners included Livia Holtsberg and Isabel Simmons (Loomis), Declan Smart and Camilla Tammaro (Russell) and Charlie Dreger and Ryder Smith (Worrall). They will each receive a private tour of the fire house with friends. BFC Lieutenant Sean Siegel said the members of BFC were impressed by the number of responses they got and the effort and creativity the students put in. “It was so hard to pick just one from each school,” said Sean “There was so much creativity and the firemen had a great time looking at all of the posters.”
The BFC has been proudly serving our community since 1923, providing us with the very best in emergency services. With the safety of its citizens and members their primary concern, they continually strive to update and modernize their equipment and firefighting methods. Thank you to the Broomall Fire Company for teaching the children in our community about fire prevention and safety and congrats to all the winners. Enjoy that ride to school!
