Children are usually told “don’t touch” when they’re old enough to start exploring their environment and testing boundaries.
That’s especially true when it comes to large emergency and work vehicles — powerful machines designed to carry out essential duties such as picking up the trash or responding to a burning home.
But on Saturday, children who usually like to explore and press buttons, honk horns, and pull strings weren’t just allowed to explore those engines, but encouraged to do so at the Santa Clarita Valley Education Foundation’s fifth annual Touch-a-Truck at Central Park.
The annual family-friendly community event gives children (and adults) the opportunity to enjoy hands-on exploration for a variety of large vehicles and meet their operators. Those large vehicles included fire engines, police vehicles, trash trucks, towing trucks, and much more.
The event also serves as one of the local nonprofit’s larger annual fundraisers with proceeds supporting local public school districts with a variety of programs that promote literacy and student engagement.
“There’s costs to everything and this kind of helps funding with all of that. We do get a lot of grants but certain grants are restricted to certain programs, and this helps to fill those gaps,” said Joe Satorhelyi, SCV Education Foundation executive director.
Seven-year-old Eleanor Margareh curiously went inside a California Highway Patrol vehicle during the daylong event.
Although it was the first vehicle she was able to explore, she enjoyed taking a closer look at the computer built into the vehicle and the walkie talkie, she said.
Margareh was in attendance with her entire family, after her mother Yvette wanted to take the kids on a family outing that was cost-friendly and catered to all of them, Yvette said.
“I love that it’s a hand-on experience for them,” Yvette said. “I love the engagement, how everyone’s here telling us and teaching us about the vehicles.”
Satorhelyi noted that entrance has been $5 per person since the event was first introduced and something the foundation hopes to continue in the upcoming years. But in order to keep the $5 nominal fee in the future, Satorhelyi encouraged more sponsors to get involved.
“Costs have gone considerably up for a lot of the services or rental things that we need … except for our ticket prices,” he said.
Touch-a-Truck brought in people of all ages. Catered to young children, the event also served as a place for adults to let their inner child come out and explore in ways they never did when younger.
Siblings Alexander, 7, and Natalia Nehme, 3, were strapped up inside a UCLA Critical Transport vehicle letting their wandering eyes take in all the different items inside of it, including the gurney, oxygen tanks and medical tools.
Growing up, their father Joe always liked looking at fire trucks, he said. He has brought his children to the event every year.
For him, seeing his children embrace the excitement makes it memorable, he said.
“You honestly feel like a kid again. It takes you back to your memories and that that they’re doing now that we weren’t able to when we were younger,” Joe said. “Seeing their enjoyment out of this makes it memorable.”
