ONTARIO — After Governor Mike DeWine ordered the closure of Ohio schools kast month, Ontario resident Matt Wells began thinking about creative ways to bring educational opportunities to children in their own homes.
“It’s been extremely important for us to help our school districts with their need for virtual education,” said Wells, an education program specialist for the Ohio Department of Education.
Wells, who also works as a firefighter and paramedic with the Springfield Township Fire Department, decided to offer video tours of the firehouse. A post on the department’s Facebook page garnered significant interest — Wells has given more than a dozen tours over the past couple of weeks.
“It just kind of started out as an experiment to see ‘Could we do this? What would it look like?’ and it just kind grew legs to be honest with you,” Wells said. “It’s been really fun and I think it’s really opened up our eyes to the options available to us.”
Wells gives the tours using a video chat platform and customizes them for each family based on the children’s ages. He’s even gotten other firefighters involved in demonstrating how to put on gear, showing off the department’s trucks and doing a question-and-answer session with each family.
He also incorporates age-appropriate science into the tours, such as discussing friction loss on a firehose, how an EMT takes a patient’s blood pressure or how first responders are taking protection measures against COVID-19.
Cassie Palsgrove said her two children loved the tour.
“They’ve already been asking when they can do it again,” said Palsgrove, whose children are seven and nine.
Palsgrove liked that the tour was both fun and educational.
“I always like when the kids can be exposed to different careers,” she said. “I also just liked them interacting with an adult who was kind of on the front line of this pandemic and serving the community.”
Chief Matthew Carey said it’s important to the department to educate the public about what fire service members do.
“Just getting the information out for people to understand how and why we do what we do… most people don’t even have a clue how we operate,” he said.
Under normal circumstances, the department offers fire education visits and tours to public schools and homeschool communities. The department has found that one advantage to digital tours is that parents are joining in.
“I think it’s been a relief for both the student and parent to see something different and engage their mind,” Wells said. “Sometimes the parents chime in and ask questions, which is really great.”
