Recently, our nephew Jake celebrated his 4th birthday at the Historic Belmont Firehouse. I'd never been there, and was so impressed with it! A really cool and unique venue for a kid's party! Its basically been turned into a museum of firefighting history and safety education. There is a real Portland firefighter that walks the kids through all the cool, old stuff.... an early 1900's fire engine that was pulled by horses, lots of equipment and photos, then the kids get to sit in the cab of a real fire engine, which I believe is a motion simulator. And the highlight of the party- a trip down the fire pole! Our guide was awesome with the kids; kept them very interested, asked them lots of questions, and explained things very well. The kids even got to watch a safety video that was very age-appropriate and really held their attention. They all sat amazingly still and quiet while watching it. This was one of the only kid's parties I've been to where the parents seemed to enjoy it as much as the kids! Ty (pictured above, with Jake behind him) has been talking about this experience ever since. As a party favor, he got a fire vest and hat, and he's been wearing them constantly, teaching Mike and I about "stop, drop and roll". The firefighter handed out bags to the kids as we left, containing more safety information, a coloring book, and a badge sticker. The Firehouse is run by a nonprofit called the Jeff Morris Foundation, who's main goal is teaching fire safety, and when you host a party or event, you just make a suggested donation to the Foundation. So it's a win-win! They also hold "safety saturdays", where the general public can just drop in to see exhibits and learn about safety. The next one is May 8th from 10-3.
No comments:
Post a Comment