Pa. Community Says Thanks to First Responders

Jan. 14--WINDBER -- Sitting side by side in a cafeteria, eating some pizza, Windber Area School District students and administrators spent a little bit of time on Tuesday getting to better know the police, fire and emergency medical personnel who protect them.

They all got together as part of the district's inaugural first-responders luncheon and networking meeting.

"I think we have an excellent relationship with all of our first responders: police, fire, EMS," said Doug Ledney, the district's federal programs coordinator. "They do anything for us, and we'll do anything for them. ... We take safety, first and foremost, very seriously.

"We had a safety drill in the fall, and we wanted to thank all of our first responders for everything they did for us and also familiarize them with the school and the school district. We would like to make this an annual event. This year we held it here at our high school-middle school. Next year we'd like to do it at the elementary school."

About two dozen first responders from Somerset and Cambria counties attended the gathering that included lunch, a walking tour and lots of conversation about safety.

"I think it's great that the Windber school district offered this event for all public safety agencies to network between each other and the district and to be able to see the security measures and all that the district has done to connect their faculty and students," said Joel Landis, a training officer with Somerset County Department of Emergency Services.

Wilbert Bailey, Paint Township's emergency management coordinator, agreed.

"I think it's wonderful. Not only do we get to meet the school and see everyone here, they get to see us, too," Bailey said. "It's appreciated very much."

The gathering was a continuation of what the parties described as an overall positive working relationship.

"We've had a good relationship with our local emergency management and law enforcement officials, and we've developed that probably over the past eight years," Windber Area School District Superintendent Rick Huffman said. "It's really been a great activity that we've seen develop kind of from an embryonic sort of thing to where we causally interacted to where we do a lot of planning/training exercises now with our students and staff to be prepared for various situations that could become an eventuality."

Dave Sutor is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at (814) 532-5056. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Sutor.

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