Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 21/10/2008 17:08

Firefighters from Penzance’s Green Watch organised a day’s football tournament with Mounts Bay School last week, as part of their Supporting Community Values community fire safety work.

The watch were joined by firefighters from Orange Watch on the day, and each firefighter was assigned a team to ‘manage’ through the tournament. The entire year 7 group attended the day, with teachers and parents looking on.

Penzance firefighter Mike Glanville explained, “We wanted to get out into our local community, meet the young people in our local schools and provide positive role modelling opportunities. It’s valuable to us to earn the respect of young people in our communities to help us spread the fire safety messages that we regularly communicate. With Bonfire Night coming up, it’s of vital importance that we can reach those communities, and these activities help us do just that.”

The year group, of over 100 children, was split into 6 teams of boys and 6 teams of girls with trophies given for winners and runners up teams in both girls and boys, the Golden Boot for the most goals scored and a girls and boys Best Sportsman trophy. It was the first time that Mounts Bay’s new house system had been used, each of the six teams representing their particular house.

The teams played 6 minutes each way for every match, until they had all played each other, all under the watchful eye of Penzance’s firefighters.

Speaking of the event, Ken Yeo added, “It’s marvellous to see our firefighters using their own time and initiative to reach their local communities and spread the fire safety message. Supporting Community Values is a very important project that aims to reach out to as many people as possible and get the fire safety message right through to everyone – including all of the hard to reach groups in our communities.”

Related item: http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=41317