A group of Lake County firefighters has made a real production out of teaching fire and life safety to elementary school children.
The Northern Lights Safety Team, which includes firefighters from the Countryside, Deerfield-Bannockburn and Lake Forest Fire Departments, uses pop music, sophisticated puppetry and a clown named J.J. Buckets to educate kids about fire, bus and kitchen safety.
“The idea is to get kids involved, to have them buy into the program,” said Countryside Fire Protection District Capt. Kris Kazian, whose human character, Safe B U, interacts with the puppets and the audience in front of a puppet stage. “We have found this to be a very positive environment for the children to learn in.”
At an assembly Wednesday at Country Meadow Elementary School in Long Grove, the group started the presentation with a bang, bringing the pupils to their feet with a rousing rock tune from teen heartthrobs the Backstreet Boys. The 5th graders were further dazzled by the group’s piece de resistance: a four-tier puppet stage shaped like a spaceship.
In the show, titled “Safety Wars” and patterned after the “Star Wars” movies, the captain can’t launch U.S. Safety Ship 911 until the crew–a wonderful assortment of life-size human and animal puppets with names like Shaggsbacca and Capt. Juan Solo–has gone over its safety checklist. The crew must make sure that smoke detectors have batteries and that cleaning fluids are out of the reach of children, among other things.
With much clowning around, Buckets enlisted the help of pupils for those tasks.
The pupils giggled at the interplay between Luke Wavewalker and Sergeant Safety, who used humor to communicate the importance of checking smoke detector batteries. Puppeteer Ian Kazian of the Deerfield-Bannockburn district played the long-haired surfer dude Wavewalker with laid-back relish. Mark McNamaman, also of Deerfield-Bannockburn, did the uptight, camouflage-garbed Sergeant with frantic glee.
“I really liked the Sergeant character,” Evan Frank, 7, said, adding that the puppet helped him remember to check smoke alarm batteries. “This was a cool show. It’s the best assembly we’ve had.”
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Sarah Albert, 7, liked Luke Wavewalker and how he added “dude” to every sentence. She, too, got the message to check batteries.
The group is in demand around the state–as far away as Monmouth, about 200 miles southwest of Chicago–and is booked this summer at the Illinois State Fair, Kazian said.
Five members, including Countryside’s Phil Obos (a.k.a. J.J. Buckets), attended a seminar in Bullhead City, Ariz., two years ago to learn tips from some of the nation’s best puppeteers and clowns on technique and prop and stage building.
Obos loves interacting with kids and making them laugh but doesn’t always appreciate the razzing he takes from fellow firefighters about his clown makeup and garb.
“He takes a lot of heat,” Kazian said.
Other members of the team, all of whom volunteer their time, are Bryan Petersen, of Countryside; Chris Johnson of Deerfield-Bannockburn, who with Kris Kazian is a co-founder of the group; Keith Patterson and Bob Toporek of Deerfield-Bannockburn; and Eric Montellano and Eric Podowski of Lake Forest.