Students could sit behind the wheel of Montgomery County Police Department cruisers, behind the handlebars of police motorcycles, as well as inside Montgomery County CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) ambulances during the Sept. 28 Truck-a-Palooza event at St. Peter’s Catholic School in Olney, Maryland.
More than 370 students were able to tour various vehicles belonging to civil servants as well as meeting members of organizations such as the MedSTAR Transportation team, Sandy Spring Volunteer Fire Department, and Maryland County Police Department cruisers during the first-ever such event at the school.
“We’re very excited at St. Peter’s to bring Truck-a-Palooza to our campus. It’s a great opportunity to extend our learning outside the classroom, giving our students the chance to learn up-close about these different vehicles and the professions related to them,” Nelson Abreu, principal at St. Peter’s Catholic School, said in a statement.
Nick Barczy, a seventh-grade student at St. Peter, said his favorite vehicl at the event was the ride-on metro bus, but he was still looking ahead to the MedSTAR transport helicopter.
“I’m mostly looking forward to the helicopter, I’ve never actually seen one,” Barczy said.
Sixth-grader Zoe Arguello said her favorite was the Blake & Sons moving truck.
“I think the lift looks really cool,” Arguello said. “It’s really cool to see [such large trucks] in a school parking lot.”
Ann Whittles, a pre-K four teacher and former crossing guard at Brooke Grove in Olney and Weller Road in Wheaton, Maryland, said the event is important to familiarize students with safety around such vehicles.
“I think this event is important to expose [the students] so they understand that they need to stop, that they can see the trucks from afar, but they don’t want to go out into the road,” she said.
Whittles added that she hopes the biggest takeaway for the students is both being more comfortable around the trucks along with a healthy amount of caution.
“It’s important for them that they don’t get scared, if they see something like an ambulance going by, that they stay calm and we say a prayer that those people inside are well and the buses too, to learn how to get on and off the bus, of course with a parent or adult,” Whittles said.
Other vehicles at the event include the American Trucking Associations’ “Share the Road” tractor-trailer, which was joined by Safety Sammy, a truck mascot, MCPD Emergency Services Unit and a SWAT vehicle, and Top Dog Dump Truck. Montgomery County’s fleet snow plow and front loader, Fletcher’s Amoco tow truck, and Nelson Tree Specialist Grapple truck were also present.
