2023 ANNUAL REPORT-FINAL

41

EMERGENCY SERVICES

EMER

Frederick County Fire and Rescue Community Outreach (Public Education)

Frederick County Fire/Rescue spends a tremendous amount of time each year interacting with the community educating them on the importance of fire safety and accident/injury prevention. Doing so furthers our efforts in creating a County that is safe, healthy, prepared, and resilient. These education opportunities include visits to schools, daycares, churches, and numerous community events. We enjoy connecting with residents and visitors, and we are grateful for the relationships we’ve been able to foster with various businesses, community leaders and organizations.

Outside of the scheduled public education sessions and our attendance at community events, in 2023 DFRS continued to provide blood pressure screening checks along with lunch and learning opportunities at several senior-focused agencies throughout the County; these included the Emmitsburg, Frederick, Brunswick, and Urbana 50+ Community Centers; the Thurmont Senior Center; Middletown Valley People Helping People; the New Market Senior Social Club; and the Crestwood Village Community.

We also began an evaluation of our Community Outreach Program as a whole. With the addition of a new Community Outreach Coordinator in September, DFRS spent the last several months of 2023 analyzing and assessing our current educational resources, community engagement methods, our educational messaging content and delivery, our community partnerships, and the overall public safety needs of our ever-growing community. As we move forward in this process, we are working to establish clear priorities focused on providing fire and life safety education that meets residents where they are, while also exploring creative ways to utilize the many unique facets of the Frederick County community to accomplish this goal. We would be happy to provide educational resources, materials, and training to anyone who is interested. To request our attendance at a community function or for specific questions regarding the Community Outreach Program, contact Calli Guercio, Community Outreach Coordinator, via email at CGuercio@FrederickCountyMD.gov.

Safe Kids Frederick

Keeping kids safe remains a priority of our organization. DFRS partnered with the Maryland Department of Health to provide several car safety seat installation checkpoints at our Northgate Fire Station #29, located at: 37 Thomas Johnson Drive, Frederick, MD 21702. In 2023, the checkpoint technicians completed 62 car seat checks for local Frederick County residents. The 2024 checkpoints will again be held at Northgate Fire Station on January 25, March 28, May 23, July 25, September 26, and November 21 from 3 pm until 6 pm.