Anyone who saw police lights and heard the wail of a siren by Old Rochester Regional High School on Aug. 6 shouldn’t have worried. Police and fire trucks were there not to respond to a disaster, but to delight kids and parents alike. 

First responders, the Marion Harbormaster, Recreation Department and the Healthy Tri-town Coalition all turned up at the Old Rochester Regional High School to show off trucks, socialize and provide activities and prizes to kids.

One patient Mattapoisett firefighter manned the kids activity where children spun a wheel to choose a fire trivia question to answer. He gave dozens of high fives for right answers and passed the children on to a nearby table to get prizes. 

The Mattapoisett Harbormaster’s table also had a wading pool with small plastic boats. Children could take (and keep!) a boat, and also get candy or other small prizes from the table. 

The wide open field, ringed with fire trucks, ambulances, police cars and one boat, from the Marion Harbormaster’s Department, gave kids plenty of room to run around. But kids also proved more than willing to strap themselves onto ambulance gurneys or into survival baskets. 

“How do you buckle yourself in?” Donald asked after laying down in a survival basket, which is attached to an ATV and used to transport accident victims from areas that are too remote for an ambulance.