NEW CARLISLE- Students, parents, and teachers saw demonstrations featuring a wide variety of fire and rescue vehicles at New Carlisle Elementary School on Thursday, October 10, during the school’s first Touch-A-Truck event, sponsored by the New Carlisle Elementary School Parent Involvement Committee.

“This is the first year,” New Carlisle Elementary School Counselor Krista Cox said. “We’re seeing how it goes this year; we are hoping to make it an annual event.”

“I think it’s going really well,” she said. “The kids seem to really be enjoying themselves.”

The Touch-A-Truck event featured a wide range of vehicles, including a 75-foot ladder truck, staff vehicles and medic units from the New Carlisle Fire Department, a Special Operations Vehicle from the Miami County Sheriff’s Office, a base police truck, a Humvee, and a Domestic Operations Trailer displayed by the U.S. Air Force National Guard. The event also featured a trash truck from Rumpke and a tow truck from Dan’s Towing.

Vehicles from Bethel Township and a bus provided by Tecumseh Local Schools were also on display.

The Touch-A-Truck event also featured games provided by the New Carlisle Elementary PTO and food trucks, including Kona Ice and Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee.

“All of these are local to our county,” Cox said. “We’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who was willing to give up their time this evening to help us out.”

“So far, it’s great,” New Carlisle Fire Chief Steve Trusty said. “There’s a lot of turnout.”

“It’s excellent,” he said. “Just to get the citizens out, get them to know us, and us to know them. They get to see what we look like and who we are.”

“We love to be involved in things like this,” U.S. Air Force National Guard member Alberta Keyton said. “If you know anybody who wants an amazing opportunity to work with amazing people locally, we’re here.”

The Touch-A-Truck event was organized by the New Carlisle Elementary School Parent Involvement Committee, Cox said.

“We do an activity each quarter of the school year, just to bring the community together, get the parents and families to our school and do a fun event for them,” she said.