BEND, OR -- Morning Star Christian School won the Firebusters award this year.
Bend Deputy Fire Marshall Cindy Kettering says 25 schools plus some homeschool families took part in the contest, which aims to help kids learn about fire and life safety. "So, we take all of the schools, region-wide, that have at least 50% participation in the program, and we draw for a grand prize winning school. We chose Morning Star Christian School as our winner this year."
The grand prize earned Morning Star a visit from AirLife yesterday, which landed a helicopter in the schoolyard with Ronald McDonald aboard.
Brothers, Christian and Riker Dorman, who are in third and first grade, were pretty excited. "It was cool seeing the helicopter...It was awesome."
Kettering says the Firebusters school program teaches life skills. "They learn important fire and life safety concepts such as home fire escape planning, they learn cooking safety, pedestrian safety, bicycle safety, we teach a lot of different things."
Ryan Cartmill, the Airlife Pilot, calls days like today great opportunities to interact with the Central Oregon Community. "I'm glad we were able to beat the snow to get in here. It's always fun to see the kids' faces light up and it's a great award ... give everybody some credit."
McDonald's restaurants sponsors the program, so Ronald Mcdonald was an honored guest at the event.
