During Fire Prevention Week, held the second week in October every year, we were busy at the Andover Fire Department. Members of AFD and EMS welcomed classes from AE/MS into the station to show them around and share important safety facts. The following day, we hosted a touch-a-truck at Fall Festival, in conjunction with the Andover Public Library, and we were lucky to see so many familiar faces from the day before.
We could not have asked for a better turnout and estimate that we saw about 250 to 300 of our community members show up and enjoy the activities planned by many community organizations. This event was definitely a community effort and we want to give huge shout-outs to those who made it possible: JJs Market sponsored our s’mores station, snacks, and donuts-on-a-string; Andover Pizza Chef donated pizza; Franklin Hannaford provided cupcakes.
In addition, we were joined by Proctor Academy art students, who helped kiddos paint pumpkins, which were grown at Beech Hill Farm, as well as their snow groomer. Andover Community Church supplied the cotton candy and cute photo op. Twin Rivers Food Pantry handed out delicious apples grown at Apple Hill Farm.
East Andover Village Preschool was represented by an adorable puppy and provided foam pumpkin crafts. The Friends of Andover Libraries supplied games and books. The Town of Andover’s Highway Department provided the materials for the obstacle course.
Hungry Hearts gym provided the tug-of-war rope. Anna Barton painted faces. And, of course, thank you to our emergency services family and librarian Michaela who showed up to help orchestrate this event.
We had surprise visits from Smokey Bear and Sparky the Dog, who roamed around and took photos with many of you! We enjoyed seeing kiddos crawl through smokey tunnels in the obstacle course, learning how to escape a burning building by staying low to the ground, practicing campfire safety by roasting marshmallows, and running around with sticky blue fingers from the cotton candy.
Tug-of-war, with first responders and kiddos on each side, was an intense battle until the end. Both sides held their own for quite a while! We also raffled off rides to school in a fire truck, ambulance, and police cruiser — check out our Facebook page to see who the lucky winners were! We love being able to engage with members of our community and we are so lucky to have this much fun while doing it.
Our next big event is the Christmas Tree Sale, always the first weekend of December. We typically have a lot of fun at this event, too, and we hope that you’ll consider joining us!