For the third year, the Southeast Pennsylvania Region (SEPA) of the American Red Cross is offering Camp Save-A-Life, a free summer program in partnership with the City Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. The program is delivered by Red Cross counselors to summer day camps held at neighborhood parks, recreation centers and playgrounds throughout the City.

This summer, eight Camp Save-A-Life counselors have been hired and trained to teach this program. These dedicated and energetic counselors make the program fun and informative for kids ages 4-8.

The counselors engage kids using “Prepare with Pedro the Penguin” a character that teaches home fire safety and coping skills. The lesson is 30 minutes. Within this brief period, it is important to catch the kids’ attention and keep them involved throughout the lesson. Pedro the Penguin is the perfect character for the job!

Pedro tells a story that young children can understand, a story about a family or a single parent learning the three steps of fire safety. The counselors learn how to tell this story with colorful visual graphics to grab the attention of the young audience. When telling the story they repeat in a rhythmic phrase “gotta get outside in under two minutes” emphasizing evacuation in less than two minutes. When the smoke alarm goes “beep beep beep” it is time to “get out and go low” because there is less smoke on the ground. The counselor demonstrates how to go low and not crawl. Continuing repetition, the story is told “once you’re out you gotta stay out” and never go back into the house. The counselors ask the kids to repeat these phrases throughout the lesson.

Lucille Alexander, a substitute teacher who was looking for something to do this summer, is a team lead counselor for Camp Save-A-Life. For Lucille, the idea of empowerment is most important. She explains “We’re going to teach them things they will remember. Kids do have a lot of power because they can influence the adults in their lives. We teach them to get your grown-ups involved. You always have the power to let people know how they can be safer.”

She continues, “Getting the kids to understand some of the basic things they need to do to be prepared for a fire is important and impactful. The kids are encouraged to share fire safety with their families. One of the facts we learned early on is 70% of the kids share what they learned with their family.”

Pedro the Penguin will have a significant impact on fire safety this summer! Ryan Gaul, SEPA Disaster Preparedness Manager, estimates a thousand kids ages 4-8 will learn fire safety from Pedro this summer.

In addition to Prepare with Pedro, Red Cross Camp Save-A-Life counselors will also present "Longfellow’s WHALE Tales" to children ages 4-12. WHALE Tales stands for Water Habits Are Learned Early. Like Pedro is used to teach fire safety, Longfellow helps children learn safer behaviors in and around water.

Observing kids in Camp Save-A-Life, Ryan exclaims “they are right on the edge of their chairs focused and wanting to be there. It is something really exciting!”

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- Written by Judith Weeks