LISTEN: Donation Helps First Responders REACH Out To Children

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Green Bay Metro Fire Department is receiving a generous donation from the REACH-A-Child organization, which provides REACH bags full of books to help comfort children in crisis situations. 

Children’s books are heading to the front lines with Green Bay firefighters, as REACH bags will be placed on every vehicle from ladder trucks to ambulances. Green Bay Fire Chief The 22 bags of books will likely see use several times every week. 

“Our job is to first comfort people, and comforting people means taking their mind off of it, putting them at ease and diverting their mind from the stress that they’re under. This will play a big role in that,” says Fire Chief David Litton, “We run well over 14,000 emergencies every year, so any opportunity we have to use them we will.”

Entire bags will likely not be given out – but individual books will be read to children in times of crisis. Those children will also be allowed to keep the books they choose. 

“From toddlers up through elementary grades, I think this is an appropriate way to deal with that or helping to deal with stress,” Litton tells WTAQ News, “[There are also] Spanish language books, because we have that population here in the city as well, will help. It’s good to be able to show our diverse community that we care about them, and this is one way of doing that.”

REACH-A-Child originated in Middleton in 2007. A couple decided to make an impact on local children who are dealing with trauma after reading messages at the Ground Zero Memorial in New York City from children who lost loved ones during 9/11. 

The program handed out nearly 26,000 brand new books to first responders last year. But some may ask – what is the difference between a book and the typical stuffed animal a firefighter might hand out?

“The child is comforted through the power of a book, but also distracted from whatever the bad thing is,” says REACH A Child Executive Director Curtis Fuszard, “Stuffed animals are great, but they’re kind of hard to store, kind of hard to keep clean. It just seems like the book is the right solution.”

The Green Bay Metro Fire Department joins the Green Bay Police Department and Brown County Sheriff’s Office as local REACH A Child recipients. The State Patrol also has a bag in every vehicle across Wisconsin. 

For more information about REACH A Child, you can check out their website here.