Carnival held for children
CHICORA — More than 200 people gathered at the Petroleum Valley Youth Center on Saturday for the first Kids Safety Carnival.
The event featured clowns, food, live music and carnival games while educating children on a variety of safety lessons.
The event was hosted by the Shared Methodist Ministries, a group of three Chicora area churches: the Faith Community Church of Bruin and Fairview, the Karns City United Methodist Church and the Chicora United Methodist Church.
Organizer Nancy Culley decided that the best way to keep children healthy is to teach them about safety across the board, such as fire safety, sports safety, campfire safety and farm safety.
The carnival itself was a 14-month planning process, led by Culley along with Mary Dawn Christie of Petrolia and Donna Larimore of Karns City. The three women raised $2,500 to help host the event, buying prizes and concessions.
And as for the prizes, children won more opportunities to win prizes the more they learned, Culley said.
Each child who participated received a paper necklace with 30 stations on it, and each station the child visited at the end of the day earned another ticket to put in a drawing for different prizes.
Children could win things like bicycle helmets, a junior firefighter basket, YMCA memberships and one of two grand prizes: a girl’s bike and a boy’s bike, Culley said.
Booths ranged from teaching children about the dangers on playgrounds to the different dangerous substances that can be found around the house.
Michelle Craig, from Mother Goose Christian School, said even common household items like laundry detergent packets can be dangerous if children break the plastic packaging and touch or eat the gel inside.
For her, the most important thing is that parents remain cognizant of the possible dangers in their home.
“Just be cautious and aware of where your medication is and what is in your house,” she said. “Think prevention before anything does happen.”
Another station featured Boy Scout Troop 217 teaching children about the importance of campfire safety, including how to chop firewood and use axes and saws safely. To earn the chip, a scout has to read a provided handbook and demonstrate the proper handling, care and use of a pocket knife, ax and saw.
That same morning, Logan Winkowski, 11, had earned his Totin’ Chip, a certification that proves the boy can carry and use wood tools safely. With his new Totin’ Chip, Winkowksi was able to perform demonstrations and explain proper wood cutting techniques alongside Tristan Hall, 15.
For Hall, the most important part of being safe is watching the environment around you while still paying attention to what you’re doing.
“Make sure you pay attention to what everyone around you is doing,” he said, which is especially true if multiple people are using axes or saws in a close vicinity.
For Tom Hilliard of Chicora, safety in any aspect means that children must be aware of the consequences, he said. Hilliard volunteered to run the playground safety station along with Linda Hilliard.
“Kids never think about the consequences, even until their late teens,” he said. “They think, ‘I can do anything and not get hurt,’ but it only takes one slip-up. The biggest thing for safety with anything is common sense.”
Children also had the opportunity to play carnival-style games and win smaller prizes like stuffed animals. All of the games, including Plinko and a life-size dice toss, were handmade by different church members, Culley said.
The event finished up with a musical performance by Isaac Cole and Mikayla Lynn of Emlenton. Cole was recently a contestant on the final season of “American Idol.”
