Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Oakland County Fair Public Safety Day 2015

Earlier this year, I was asked by a member of the Oakland County Fair Board to be her vice-chairperson for the public safety day event.  This will be the fair's third attempt at the event.  The first year was geared towards fire department related activities and was great except for lack of participation from most departments in the county.  Last year the event was mostly rained out due to the arena being under water.  I have expressed a desire in the past to help out and volunteer and due to that and the other staff who usually help being pre-occupied with full-time work, I was asked to help run the event.
I'm excited and look forward to this great opportunity to prove what I can do.  So far I've had help from a couple of chiefs circulating the info amongst the various fire and police departments across the county.  I have also emailed a couple of ambulance companies, the Michigan State Police, and utility companies to see if they would be willing and able to participate in some capacity.
Some of my ideas of things I'd like to do that day include, but not limited too:
- static display of current, unique, and antique emergency vehicles
- a K-9 demonstration
- a vehicle extrication demonstration
- booths for agencies to put up displays, brochures, pamphlets, job applications, etc...
- waterball
- Stan Safety the magical fireman
- plastic helmets, sticker badges, etc
- and more, much more
So far I've had phone calls from the DEA and Consumers Energy saying they are highly interested and MSP has already committed to participating.
If you're on an Oakland County FD, PD, or EMS agency, please encourage your agency to be involved.  There will hopefully be some prizes awarded, but most of all you'll be showcasing your agency to the residents of the county and maybe getting some people interested in helping your department.
If you have any ideas of other agencies to contact, or ideas for games, events, and demonstrations or for more info please email me at almont2@yahoo.com.
Thanks for your time.

*Update 3/13/15*
I have 2 more confirmations:
- Michigan EMS Memorial committee
- Star EMS with ambulance and doing free Blood Pressure checks

*Update 3/18/15*
- Currently working with Kidde for smoke detector donations, Kohl's Cares and DMC for bicycle helmet donations.
- National Weather Service is interested in coming out.
- Bloomfield Twp PD is looking into possibly bringing out their drunk driving simulator goggles.

*Update 3/20/15*
- Beaumont Hospitals is looking at bringing out information from it's Safety City USA display

*Update 3/23/15*
- Southfield PD will at the least be doing a table spot with flyers & applications. They may be bringing a specialized unit as well.

*Update 3/25/15*
Rochester Hills FD has agreed to participate in some form