Nearly 150 area children, ages 5 through 11, recently participated in the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office’s annual Junior Deputy Camp.

The week-long camp gave children the opportunity to meet local community helpers such as EMS, Baldwin County Sheriff’s Deputies and fire personnel, learn about their jobs and absorb some important safety information.

BCSO Deputy and Junior Deputy Camp Director Stacy Lewis said the event was a great success and gave the children the opportunity to learn invaluable lessons on the importance of local area emergency personnel.

The week included quite a variety of visitors and presentations for the children, she said.

“The Department of Natural Resources came out and discussed boating and water safety and the Bicycle Club of Milledgeville came and taught the children about bike safety, how to maintain your bike and the importance of wearing a helmet,” she said. “We also had a representative from Georgia Forestry come out, along with Smokey the Bear, and the kids learned about him, where he came from and the importance of fire safety.”

In addition, a representative from Georgia Power came to the camp, which was held at the old Davis Elementary School on Orchard Hill Road, and did a demonstration called “Power Town” that taught the children how energy is provided to homes and businesses, as well as important safety precautions concerning electricity, she said.

The children also had the opportunity to get fingerprinted.

“Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office detectives came out and everybody was fingerprinted,” she said. “A record of their fingerprints was sent home with the children so that if something happened, their parents would have a record of their fingerprints on hand.”

The children were also educated on the importance of EMS in an emergency situation, she said.

“EMS came out and let the kids see the truck,” said Lewis. “They taught them about the sirens and why it’s important to get out of the way when emergency vehicles are driving with their sirens on.”

The children also had an opportunity to meet a Department of Correction’s K-9 dog as well as learn a thing or two about chemistry.

“The Department of Corrections came out with the K-9. They told them about how the dogs are used for tracking people when they get lost or even when people escape from jail,” she said. “Georgia College came out and did some arts and crafts with them and they made slime. [GCSU chemistry professor] Dr. [Douglas] Pohl came out and did a chemistry magic show.”

The camp ended with a “Fun Day” that included playing in the water as it spewed from the canon of a Baldwin County fire truck, jumping around in a blow-up “bouncy house,” and a cookout.

“We had the big blow up bouncy house and we did the water canon, and of course, we had the big cookout,” she said.

The camp, which is usually a two-week event, was only held for a week this year due to scheduling conflicts, but Lewis said it was still successful.

“It worked out real well being a week long. We had a good number of children participate this year. We had almost a 150. We’ve always done it for two weeks before, but our schedules wouldn’t coordinate. We only ran it for a week this year but it still turned out great,” she said.

Deputy Jennifer Butch, assistant camp director, said the camp makes a big impact on the children.

“We enjoy having the kids every year because it gives us the opportunity to build a good rapport with the children,” said Butch. “And we hope that in years to come, they will come to us if they’re in trouble or they’re just in need of an opinion or advice.”

Lewis said she is already looking forward to next year.

“We had a great time,” said Lewis. “There were a lot of familiar faces and we had a lot of new kids. We really, really enjoyed everybody and we’re already looking forward to it again next year.”