Elizabeth Mays of Aurora knows her grandson loves all kinds of trucks and that he wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to see some up close Saturday morning in Aurora.
“Kids love trucks, oh God, yes,” she said at the ninth annual Community Hero Day at the Aurora Regional Fire Museum in downtown Aurora. “I think kids continue to like this because they are so little and these massive things, they can touch them and experience them and they’re not so scary.”
The Community Hero Day event at the museum brought together a host of first responders along with plenty of fire, police and emergency vehicles for kids and parents to explore.
The four-hour event also included fire truck rides through downtown Aurora, along with touch-a-truck options, a live fire department demonstration, a free CPR class, face painting and more.
A food vendor and a live DJ were also on hand for the fest.
Brian Failing, executive director of the Aurora Regional Fire Museum, said the event has been held for nearly a decade.
“When we first started this years ago, we wanted to bring together all these community heroes, so looking beyond just police and fire, all the different community services,” he said. “We wanted the tollway, toll trucks, police, fire, emergency management, you name it.
“This has evolved into being more centered to fire and life safety as well – showing what the fire department does,” Failing added. “We’ve always done the live fire demonstration but now we do an extrication demo.”
The event has averaged about 1,000 visitors a year, organizers said.
“Families just love being able to get up-close and personal and interact with all these different organizations and vehicles and people,” Failing said. “Just seeing what goes into creating a safe community. The fire truck rides, the live fire demonstrations and the touch-a-truck remain the most popular things.”
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Brittany Brunner of North Aurora was checking out a local canine officer station and said this was her first visit to Community Hero Day.
“I think people come to this because it’s about getting the community together and also recognizing the local people that serve us,” she said. “All the services within the community, it’s really nice to see the families come out and get to know each other.”
Brunner also spoke about the kid factor at the event featuring first responders.
“It might inspire them to have a career in this in the future,” she said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.