Kent County's public safety groups and dozens of others will fill Brecknock County Park in Camden this Saturday for their 17th annual Safe Summer Day.
They'll be giving away bikes and healthy foods, checking car seat installations and showing off heavy-duty emergency equipment, like the Jaws of Life and a state police helicopter, to the more than 2,000 kids and parents expected to attend.
County safety coordinator Wayne McCarty says families can also tour the county's mobile emergency command center and meet local first responders and military personnel.
"We want everybody in Kent County to be healthy and safe for the coming year," McCarty says. "We want to make sure they have a chance to say thank you to the local heroes that do so much behind the scenes every year."
He says kids like the moonbounces best, along with the stations where they can learn something and then snag a giveaway.
"They like the participation, whether it's learning what it's like to walk around drunk, even though they're not," he says, referring to the "drunk goggles" kids can wear while trying to dunk a volunteer at the dunk tank, "or to be able to meet a firefighter in full bunker gear, which looks pretty scary to a little kid, up close and personal in a non-threatening environment, so if that child ever has to meet one in a real environment, they'll not be afraid of them."
McCarty says Safe Summer started in the Caesar Rodney High School parking lot with just a handful of booths. Since then, it's grown to feature more than 50 organizations -- from the YMCA to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Safe Summer Day takes place Saturday, June 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Brecknock Park.