Staying safe on the water

HURON — With activities equal parts educational and entertaining, Huron first responders taught children about how to stay safe around the water on Wednesday during the city's annual Water Safety Days event. About 120 Huron-area students — from the city school district, St. Peter Catholic School and Firelands Montessori Academy — took part in this waterfront activity. Huron's police officers and firefighters also relied upon other officials —from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' watercraft division, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Geological Survey — to help teach kids about water safety at the Huron Boat Basin property. Children could visit various stations, which included how to: • Rescue victims in the water; Kids could throw a rope around cutout silhouettes to mock-rescue a person. • Put on a life jacket aboard a raft and boat on land • Better understand aquatic life by looking through microscopes "Almost all of these kids live within 1 mile of the lake, and all attend school a few blocks away," said Charlie Ruggles, a Huron firefighter and the department's prevention and education coordinator. "They will be in situations where water safety will be important, and we want to drive that home with them when they're young so that they can help themselves or someone else if they need to." On a related note, later in the day, Huron police debuted its new police boat. About a year ago, an anonymous donor covered all costs for a local police department to purchase a new police boat. This boat, an Alukin CW 750 aluminum utility boat with a centered enclosed cabin, is valued at $200,000. The actual price Huron purchased it for: $167,500.