Fired up students
By Chris Yemma/Special to the Daily Press
APPLE VALLEY – Students of the Academy for Academic Excellence who completed the Risk Watch Safety Program were honored at a graduation lunch ceremony Monday.
The Apple Valley Fire Protection District sponsored a Water Safety Day and 11 a.m. luncheon at the Lewis Center for Educational Research.
The graduation lunch was for the kindergarten through second-grade students of the Academy for Academic Excellence for completing the safety program.
Fire Chief Doug Qualls of the AVFPD barbecued hot dogs and presented the 200 participants — consisting of students, staff and parent volunteers — certificates of completion of the program.
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Photos by Aaron J. H. Walker/Staff Photographer Apple Valley Fire Protection Cheif Doug Quall mans the grill at Lewis Center |
"We're just here celebrating the graduation of all these K through second-graders who went through the Risk Watch Program," Qualls said. "To commemorate and celebrate along with them, we're doing up some hot dogs for them."
The program, which started in February as a pilot presentation, was put into effect to increase awareness among students about fire, bicycle, water, firearm and poison safety, according to Jennifer Eisenbrey, a public education officer for the fire protection district.
"We decided to contact the Lewis Center and see if they would pilot the program for us and, because it is a rather extensive program, we wanted to see how it was going to work in a school," Eisenbrey said. "So, because this campus is K through two — a small group of kids — we can kind of get a feel of what we need to work on and what we need to change."
A safety topic for each month since February was woven into the school curriculum, Eisenbrey said. For more information about the Risk Watch Safety Program or the Academy for Academic Excellence, call the Lewis Center at 946-5414, or visit the center's Web site at http://www.lewiscenter.org.
Used with permission by Daily Press, Freedom Communication, 2003