Mahopac Fire Department Opens Fair to PARC Students
For children with development disabilities, going to a fair can be overwhelming.
With a high density of people, plenty of hair-raising rides, and booming noises, children with special needs might not have the sort of fun in the same setting that other kids soak in.
So with that in mind, for yet another year, the Mahopac Fire Volunteer Fire Department opened up its annual Firefighters Fair to PARC Preschool Thursday morning, July 18, exclusively to the school. With the fire department donating its time for now more than 30 years, not even a blistering hot day could stop PARC students from enjoying themselves.
“Many of the children in our program really do well when the noise level and the stimulation level is lower, crowds are fewer,” PARC Preschool director Jane Curtin said. “All of that can be just too much sensory overload under normal circumstances and create a lot of fear and a lot of anxiety.”
Thirty-three-year volunteer firefighter Chuck Lewis has been organizing the event for the past 15 years. Lewis, along with the almost everyone else in the department, comes in during the day to help out to ensure everything runs smoothly.
The department is also able to get the workers who run the rides to come in free of charge.
With the temperatures reaching well above 90 degrees, the department opened up the firehouse where the students could eat hotdogs and hamburgers and had plenty of water to drink.
“This is great. These kids, they love coming here and they look forward to it,” Lewis said.
Much of the other community outreach the department focuses on has to do with fire prevention, going around to school and other community forums to education children and also adults.
But for one day, it’s a nice change of pace to focus on just having fun. As the day goes on many of the students and volunteers end up interacting and enjoying each other’s company.
He added, “The smiles on their face, it’s all worth it.”
And the students not only enjoy the day with each other and staff, but many parents, siblings, other relatives and friends are invited to partake. Curtin said that opportunities like this allow the children to experience a sense of normalcy other kids take for granted.
“To be able to participate in the mainstream of community events is really important for our families and our students,” Curtin said. “And when special accommodations are made for community events for children with special needs, it’s a wonderful thing.”
