By Elyssa Parnell

eparnell@civitasmedia.com

This year’s Kids Fun Day will be held Sept. 13 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the parking lot of Piedmont Technical College.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_funday2.jpgThis year’s Kids Fun Day will be held Sept. 13 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the parking lot of Piedmont Technical College.

By Elyssa Parnell

eparnell@civitasmedia.com

NEWBERRY — Intermingling with members of the fire and rescue service and learning the value of safety is what Newberry Fire Department Chief Keith Minick said their annual Kids Fun Day is all about.

This year’s event will be held September 13 from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. at the parking lot of Piedmont Technical College.

Minick said this is the fourth year they had held the Kids Fun Day in town.

For over 20 years, the Newberry Fire Department had held a youth fishing rodeo. Originally Minick said it was called Get Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs and then transitioned to a fishing rodeo, held at Dave Waldrop’s pond in Newberry.

Following that location, Kids Fun Day was held in the Lowe’s parking lot before transitioning to Piedmont Technical College.

“The whole idea is for us to have a day for kids to come out and get an education on fire safety, rescue safety and other safety messages,” Minick said.

The event is put on using money generated from the annual golf tournament held in July. Last year’s Kids Fun Day drew between 500 to 600 people, Minick said.

The committee that puts on the event rotates from shift to shift every year, Minick said, with this year being C-shift.

Minick said Gregg Taylor oversaw the golf tournament this year and worked to put the Kids Fun Day event together.

“We appreciate all of their hard work in putting this together,” Minick said.

Families can come out Sunday to see displays including fire trucks, rescue squad displays and inflatables for children.

The Newberry Police Department, Newberry County Sheriff’s Office and Newberry County EMS will be on hand, Minick said, and the Newberry College dance team will be doing facepainting.

First Baptist Church will serve cotton candy and Ascension Ministries from Prosperity will assist with snacks. ServPro and State Farm will help with snowcones for Sunday’s event.

Minick said the state fire marshal’s office is scheduled to bring its Urban Search and Rescue (USR) trailer and the Blood Connection crew will be on hand to pass out information on how to donate. Waffle House will be providing hot dogs.

“We want people to intermingle with the different departments and get a safety message,” Minick said.

Last year in conjunction with Kids Fun Day, the Newberry Fire Department demonstrated a side-by-side live burn to show the community how quickly a fire can run its course. However, Minick said they will not be doing that this year.

About four years ago, a similar burn demonstration was held at Newberry College, Minick said so it was incorporated with last year’s event to put more education out about sprinkler systems, fire safety and about how fast fire power can be.

Although they will not be doing that this year, Minick said they hoped to do another demonstration in Newberry in the near future.

Kids Fun Day, Minick said was just a time to say thank you for supporting them and to show the community that they appreciated that support.

With today being September 11, Minick said they had already received some “thank you” messages and hoped that having people come out on Sunday would help further portray the message that they were there as a group to make the community a safe place.

“It’s a good time to network and appreciate what we have in our community,” Minick said.

Overall, Minick said it would just be a fun day for people to socialize and learn something new.

“Where else can you go to drop in for hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, drinks and education all in one day?” Minick said.

Reach Elyssa Parnell at 803-276-0625, ext. 1868, or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.

Reach Elyssa Parnell at 803-276-0625, ext. 1868, or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.