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Date: 6/13/2023
AMHERST — The second annual Community Safety Day comes to the Mill River Recreation Area on Saturday, June 24.
This year’s event is again sponsored by the Amherst Senior Center and will include even more displays and demonstrations than last year, according to Director Hayley Bolton.
Live demonstrations featuring a police K9, the Jaws of Life tool in action and car seat inspections are part of the day again this year.
On hand to take part will be members of the Amherst Police and Fire departments, Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service as well as first responders from the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Office, the University of Massachusetts Police Department and the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office.
Senior Center Director Hayley Bolton said it’s important to connect older adults with their local emergency services.
“Older adults are about a third of all the 911 calls in the town of Amherst,” Bolton said. “If somebody is going to be showing up at your house for a medical reason or a fire or something like that, it is really important to know your first responders and to feel comfortable with them,” she added.
Bolton stressed that she likes to do events that residents can take their grandchild to, so Community Safety Day is not at all just for older residents of Amherst, it’s for everyone.
“What’s good for our seniors is really what’s good for the entire community, we just need some more support services as we get older” she said.
There are attractions especially for the kids, including face painting, balloon twisting and a live DJ will be offered along with the touch-a-truck exhibit with public safety and emergency response vehicles and the fire safety trailer, which helps to teach children what and what not to do during a fire.
Information booths will provide education on issues impacting seniors and the community as a whole but more than just a day of important information, Bolton said it will be a day of fun and community complimented by food, music and raffles.
“It’s just fun, this is just a really fun, free event to get to know people in your community and feel better connected, I think, especially after the pandemic where we were all so isolated,” she said. “Having the ability to just go and laugh and have fun and not think about some of those horrible stressors in the world, you have to seize those opportunities because they don’t come around a lot,” Bolton said.
Community Safety Day runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
More information is available at amherstma.gov