Students in Lloydminster have had the chance to be the police or fire chief for the day.
Eight local youths were sworn-in on Tuesday, April 19th, pledging to fulfill their duties to the city. The students were selected through a creative contest for grades 4 to 6. Applicants were asked to submit a written report, video, or entry via other media, either discussing fire safety practices or online safety practices, based on which Chief position sought after.
Lloydminster Emergency Services oversaw the contest and application process. Emergency Management Coordinator with the City, Anne Danielson, said one of the students submitted a video of herself singing Adele’s Hello, with the lyrics changed to the fire safety theme. Another that Danielson raved about was an application for police chief.
“There was a lot of really well-written submissions. As I mentioned, one of them was about online security. So the introduction was, ‘Hi, my name is…and I’m from this school…etc,’ and then she said, ‘just kidding! My name is actually…’ and then she proved the point of how important online security and safety is… That really got the point across very well.”
Danielson also said about 19 submissions were received for police chief applicants and between 6 to 10 for fire chief, and she believes that the City will be doing this contest again next year.
For the students who got to be little fire chiefs for the day, they got to ride around in the big fire truck, and a bit get wet, learning how to put out a house fire. The little police chiefs got to sit in on a meeting, do a finger-printing exercise, and see the holding cells in the Detachment.
Fire Chief, Jordan Newton, said that the main goal for the fire department, behind doing the special day for the student participants is the hope that they will then spread their new found knowledge from their experiences with family and friends, about the emergency services in Lloydminster.
As well, as RCMP Inspector Suki Manj explained, the day was meant to get people thinking about Emergency Preparedness Week.
“So this is another opportunity for the Emergency Services to get youth involved in our community and it’s another way of making sure that people understand emergency preparedness… Emergency Preparedness Week is the first week of May and we wanted to start the thought process and the thinking around that with our youth, and what better way than to have them do your job for you.”
The 4 fire chiefs, who can be seen in the main article photo, were grade 6 student, Victoria Campbell from Barr Colony school; grade 4 student, Muhammad Zulkifal from Rendell Park; Hannah Willis, grade 5 at College Park School; and Maggie Fallscheer, grade 5 student from Ecole St. Thomas
The 4 police chiefs, all of whom can be seen in the picture below, were Mason Redl, grade 4 student at Winston Churchill; Kaylee Skinner, grade 6 at Barr Colony; Jackson Brown, grade 6 student at Barr Colony; and Tatum Jezowski, grade 5 student at St. Mary’s.
