VIDEO: Kids in St. Charles are getting up close and personal with first responders in their community as part of the inaugural Youth Leadership Camp. Chad Thorpe, School Resource Officer with the St. Charles County Police Department, helped organize the five-day summer camp. He told First Alert 4 that the camp is to teach children about the people who help keep them safe.
“We wanted to reach out to kids in our community to give them a positive full week of camp. What it’s like to be a police officer, what it’s like to be a leader, so we’re gonna show them all our stuff, do a lot of team building activities, it’s just been really great,” said Officer Thorpe. For five days, kids aged 10-12 are spending their dog days of summer with different first responder units, including paramedics, S.W.A.T., police and fire departments, and everything in between.
Other organizers say a deeper connection with the kids leads to a greater community. “We obviously want the kids to feel comfortable when the police show up or the fire dept shows up or the ambulance shows up, but even more than that, it lets them see the human side of us,” said Corporal Barry Bayles, PIO for St. Charles County police.
For the kids, it’s a lasting memory. “They do this camp to make sure people are comfortable with police officers being there for you because they’re supposed to help you through everything,” said Gabby Kleaver, a child attending the camp.
