The event gave students the entire school day to explore various stations that exposed the kids to physical, social, and emotional health and safety themes.

The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy was just one of the many organizations in attendance. Land Specialist Bethany O’Hagan and Conservationist Carol Markham were two of the representatives running the activity for the day.

The activity consisted of Markham and O’Hagan distributing natural journals and taking the kids on a walk around the school-owned nature trails. This presented the children with the ability to connect on a deeper level with nature. Throughout the walk, Markham and O’Hagan would stop and allow the group to take in the naturistic beauty, make observations, and document what they see in their journals. Markham also used this as a chance to educate children on a host of different types of plants and fungi that the group would encounter on the walk.

Chautauqua County EMS was also present and taught many important life-saving emergency care techniques. EMS members went over important instructions on how to perform aid to someone choking, CPR, tourniquet application, and aided in the special firetruck wars to end off the day. One of the representatives of EMS was Ann Brodell. Brodell went over the proper courses of action when addressing a wound, and provided examples of stuffing wounds and applying tourniquets to a dummy. Afterwards, children had the opportunity to use practice tourniquettes on each other. Despite the generally dark subject matter of this presentation, Brodell gave it in a way that had children smiling and laughing due to the entertaining interactivity of the station.

A student hard at work measuring out ingredients for a smoothie.

Seemingly the most memorable station to the students seemed to be the seatbelt convincer and the drunk goggle safety simulation. This station was provided by members of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, with Deputy Phil Lombardo overseeing the event. Lombardo was offering students the chance to go into a machine that would simulate the force of a car crash at five to seven miles per hour. While a crash at these speeds may seem insignificant, Lombardo noted that even minor speeds can be deadly when not wearing a seatbelt. Lombardo also had three sets of drunk goggles for students to wear while attempting to pass a standard field sobriety test. There were three different goggles of increasing difficulty. While students tried their best, no students were successfully able to pass the field sobriety test with the goggles on. This hopefully acts as an important lesson as to the true dangers of getting behind the wheel while under the influence.

Elaine Crossley, of the 100 Bluebird Houses Project, was also in attendance. Crossley and the organization gave children the chance to learn more about animal habitats, and even build one themselves. Students had the opportunity to work on assembling bird houses that will eventually become bluebird habitats. Crossley mentioned that her love for bluebirds began from the second she first laid eyes on one in the 1960s. In 1968, Crossley and her family moved to Frewsburg, where a bluebird box would be located in the backyard of the new house. After a neighbor informed her of the rarity of the birds, Crossley took it upon herself to install nine more boxes around the area during the remainder of that year. Crossley has been helping bluebirds for about 55 years at this point, and seemed eager to continue spreading her knowledge and love for the birds.

Numerous other organizations contributed to the event and provided stations for children to learn from. The Chautauqua Health Network, alongside the instructions of Amanda Purney, put on a nutritional station. This station provided students the opportunity to make healthy smoothies and learn more about maintaining a well-balanced nutritional diet. Representatives of Hibbett Sports were also in attendance. These representatives were conducting an activity that saw students learning different lacing styles for shoes, and also taught about athletic performance and health. Inner Lakes Federal Credit Union was the last remaining business in attendance. Inner Lakes representatives were providing students with information on financial literacy through a fun competitive game. Community businesses were not solely responsible for this productive and informative event though. Staff and interning students held a crucial role within this event that allowed it to function as well as it did. The Maple Grove Arts and Performing Arts Departments were providing temporary tattoos to boost creativity, and were teaching choreographed broadway dances to show expression. The Maple Grove Physical Education Department also took on a role and provided a fitness tournament for students to compete in. This encouraged teamwork amongst the students while testing physical endurance too. Even the Maple Grove Journalism group played a key role in the day’s activities, by capturing the memories of the students on a day that is beneficial to all aspects of health and wellness.

The day ended on a point of fun for the children with a fire truck war. This consisted of two teams of children attempting to spray an inflatable ball into the other team’s area using a fire hose.

Elaine Crossley informs students about bluebird habits before they work on constructing the bluebird houses.

Two joyful students practicing tourniquetting each other.

Bethany O’Hagan and Carol Markham lead students on a tour of nature.