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Most promotion ceremonies are pretty memorable but all very much the same. There is a lot of sitting, a lot of speeches…that was not the case for James D. Price Elementary School fifth graders who were greeted by fire trucks, sirens and their teacher all at their driveway.
Price School located at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) has a class of ten fifth graders who are moving on to a new school for the next school year and would not have that traditional promotion ceremony,
“I was kind of sad for them” said their Teacher Ms. Rachel Curtis, “It should have been something they looked forward to especially for some of the students that will be moving to a different state. Going up to middle school is a whole different ball game from the close community they have at Price.”
Like many parents and schools during this pandemic, Price’s School Counselor, Ms. Rae Packard thought outside the box on a way to make graduation special. Packard reached out to the YPG Fire Department on behalf of the Price’s principal and Ms. Curtis.
YPG is a very tightknit community so naturally Timothy Johnson, Assistant Chief of Training did not hesitate, “Our thoughts were definitely to do something special to recognize these children. We wanted to be able to support the school with in their request to do something special for our 5th grade students aboard YPG.”
The fire department crew created a route around base housing after getting the addresses of the students and gave Ms. Curtis the truck dimension so she could create banners. On the day of the event it was time to hang the 12 foot long banners, balloons and streamers on trucks.
“The fire department was great! I went in to help them hang the banner. They were like ‘we got it’. I thought it was great, they were the ones decorating. I guess we’ll have to call them next time we have a promotion and we are decorating,” joked Curtis.
Firefighter Joseph Rochester says while decorating the fire engine is not something he imaged he would ever do it was a good time, “It was a privilege to do it to see the smile’s on the kids.”
Engineer Anthony Rios drove the fire engine and Rochester drove a smaller off highway vehicle following the engine with Ms. Curtis and YPG Archeologist, Erin Goslin who served as the photographer.
As the vehicles drove up the student’s homes with sirens and horns blowing community members peeked out their windows and others came out to see what the commotion was about.
“At first it’s kind of sad to think the kids won’t get a graduation but this was a special time” says Rochester.
“It was a mixture of sadness because I haven’t got to spend time with them, but also happy. It was a mixture of feelings,” remarked Curtis
The student’s feelings were also mixed, “Some of them were kind of nervous like what is going on? Others were really excited, and I had one student that kind of teared up a little bit,” says Curtis.
The firefighters stayed in the trucks while Ms. Curtis greeted her students and gave them a certificate. This unconventional promotion ceremony was not only memorable but it’s a testament of how the YPG family is always ready to help each other.
“The firefighters were enthusiastic and felt privileged to be a part of something special” remarked Johnson, “Our roots in the community go pretty deep and our guys they love the job and working with our community.”
| Date Taken: | 05.28.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2020 17:15 |
| Story ID: | 371409 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, AZ, US |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, YPG fire department helps elementary school teacher host memorable promotion ceremony, by Ana Henderson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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