Paramedic Nick Carvajal (left), beside Marco and Gio after showing them inside of the ambulance. Photo by Victoria Caminha
By Victoria Caminha [1]
BELLEVILLE – The Family Fun Fest & Touch-A-Truck [2] event took place at Zwick’s Park in Belleville [3] on Sept. 17, giving kids and their families a fun day to explore different work vehicles and activities.
“They get to talk with the officers, they get to talk with the fire department, they get to explore different career options when they sit in trucks and try on, you know army clothes and doing all that kind of stuff, but I think it’s just really great for kids and families to have this time together,” co-chair of the event, Paul Fleming, said.
Kate Giorgio, mom of Gia and Marco, said, “I think it’s a really beautiful event, a really engaging one for the kids to come out and see different professions.”
She also said that she hopes that the event inspires the kids to wonder about what they want to be when they grow up to see what it looks like.
Mikiah (left), Donnovan, Kailey and Liliryan having fun with one of the fun cars at the event inspired by Mater from the movie “Cars”. Photo by Victoria Caminha
The event featured food trucks, activities for kids and families, face painting, balloon artists, and a lot of different trucks to touch, like fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, military vehicles, radio, and TV transmission vehicles, construction, and farm trucks.
“It’s great for community bonding and for community gatherings. We’re called the friendly city for reason. I think community togetherness is important,” firefighter, Steve Parks said.
All the trucks were open for families to explore. Volunteers participated in the event explaining and answering questions about their work vehicles.
“I think it’s pretty cool… just to have tons of different cars because we don’t see lots of them most of the time, so it’s really cool having them here,” said 13-year-old Willow Cayen.
The co-chairs of the Touch-A-Truck event Yakow Sobolev (left) and Paul Fleming after the interview with QNet News. Photo by Victoria Caminha
“It really allows them (the kids) to connect with their community, they’re connecting with the trucks that they see every day instead of just seeing the police go by them they get to talk with the officers,” said event co-chair Fleming.
“I think it brings the community together enjoying the last weeks of nice warm weather. It’s a free event which is always a bonus in getting people out there getting people to enjoy the fresh air experiencing what city has to offer,” said the other event co-chair Yakow Sobolev.
Fleming said, “I think at the end of the day it actually turned out to be a lot more people, a lot more kids than we had expected, really just a great community event.”
The touch-a-truck event was organized by The Rotary Club of Belleville [4] in partnership with the Family Fun Fest.
“We appreciate all the help from the volunteers, the truckers, and everyone who decided to participate. We absolutely would love to make this an annual event,” said Sobolev.