By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
Baylor’s Department of Public Safety is hosting Sic ’em for Safety Day from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday on Fountain Mall. The event will feature emergency trainings, such as a residence hall fire demonstration and CPR training, as well as fun activities for students, like ax throwing.
George Nunez, director of emergency management, said Sic ’em for Safety Day is an opportunity for students to learn about on-campus safety.
“Sic ’em for Safety Day is Baylor’s annual safety day, which is part of National Preparedness Month, which is a month dedicated in the U.S. to promote preparedness and safety throughout our daily lives and be able to interact with our first responders,” Nunez said. “It’s a great opportunity for Baylor to be able to be a part of this national initiative.”
Nunez said the goal of the event is to inform students of safety protocols while still having fun.
“The primary goals — I would say one is just for people to come out and have a great time,” Nunez said. “At the same time, being able to learn more about Baylor’s Department of Public Safety, being able to learn more about our community resources in a nonemergency setting. Here, people are able to walk up, for example, [to] a police officer or a fire truck.”
Both on-campus and local responders will teach safety skills to students, Nunez said.
“It’s a great way for the Baylor University community to interact with first responders — not just from campus, but also the community,” Nunez said. “For off campus, that includes the McLennan County’s Sheriff’s Office; Waco Police Department; Waco Fire Department; AMR, who is our local EMS provider; along with other agencies that people may not be as familiar with.”
Although students will be able to interact with all of the different public safety departments, Nunez said certain ones are more popular among students.
“More of a popular attraction is AMR, or the EMS,” Nunez said. “They have a labradoodle of the name of Liberty, and Liberty is always probably the most friendliest of dogs that’s used as a therapy dog. So people are able to meet Liberty at Safety Day.”
The event will include several hands-on opportunities for students, Nunez said.
“[One opportunity is] fire extinguisher training with a live fire in a controlled environment,” Nunez said. “They will also be able to do hands-only CPR. [Another opportunity is] being able to check out the robot from the Sheriff’s Office, from the explosive ordinance unit, and also being able to interact with EMS personnel and see what is really inside an ambulance and all the equipment and the tools that are in there.”
Nunez said one of the highlights of Safety Day will be the mock dorm room fire.
“That is really important for people to realize, first of all, how to make sure people learn about fire and fire safety, especially at a residential campus like Baylor,” Nunez said. “Even though we have fire alarms, fire sprinklers on campus, people need to recognize how quickly a fire can spread. The mock dorm room fire, which we’ve done every year, just shows how quickly a small fire can just take over a room.”
McKinney freshman Ava Schwab said she is looking forward to Safety Day because of the opportunity to learn safety skills.
“My family is really big on safety,” Schwab said. “So I think it will be really nice to tell my parents I went to Safety Day to learn CPR and anything that could keep me safe on campus.”
Schwab also said she wants to gain a better understanding of on-campus safety in general.
“I hope to just gain more understanding about how to stay safe and how to prevent bad things from happening to myself or my friends on campus,” Schwab said.
This is Baylor’s fourth year of hosting Sic ’em for Safety Day, and Nunez said the event has grown each year.
“We try to make it an interactive and fun environment, so along with some of the training opportunities, people are actually going to be able to participate in ax throwing, which is very popular on campus, through Waco Axe [Company],” Nunez said. “Also, there is going to be a huge inflatable. … There’s also freebies, along with snacks — for example, free Kona Ice. There’s also going to be free T-shirts for the first 1,000 people that come to the event.”
