One of the winners of the toddler bike from the Milwaukee County Sheriffs at the Parks and Public Safety Day event. (Photo by Karen Stokes)
On July 20 and July 27, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) and the Milwaukee County Parks hosted the first Parks and Public Safety Days. The first event was held at Kosciuszko Park and the second was held at Washington Park. The Parks and Public Safety Days were free events and open to the entire community. Through fun, food and fellowship, the events were the perfect backdrop to discuss serious topics such as car seat safety, gun safety, lost child prevention and healthy living.
The Parks and Public Safety Days were just one way to provide residents with some necessary information and tools to empower them to keep their families and our parks safe. Faithe Colas, Director of Public Affairs and Community Engagement at the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said: “It’s unfortunate, but a reality. We live in a world where violence, especially gun violence, happens more often than we care to read or hear about. It’s our duty as committed leaders to provide the best in service. Whether the service provided is healthcare or public safety, ensuring the residents of Milwaukee County have information and resources they need to help secure a safer and healthier lifestyle is the responsibility of us all.”
Sheriff Earnell Lucas is committed to providing the best public service to the residents of Milwaukee County through countywide, community and resident partnerships. Sheriff Lucas believes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, “What affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
Keli Anderson discussing health and safety with families at Parks and Public Safety Day. (Photo by Karen Stokes)
One of the many sponsors of Park and Public Safety Days was Ascension Wisconsin. Keli Anderson, BSN RN at Ascension St. Joseph demonstrated how to use and distributed gun locks.
We believe Ascension, like all the Parks and Public Safety Day partners, are committed to making Milwaukee a better place to live, work and play for everyone.
“I handed out twenty-seven locks and was able to speak to parents and children about firearm safety. I was able to teach the young children the three simple rules: Stop, don’t touch it, —even if it looks like a toy—and go tell an adult,” said Anderson. “These simple messages could be what your child relies on in a critical moment of finding a loaded firearm. Access to a safe storage option for firearms within the home is an essential part of firearm safety. Through our partnership with Project Child Safe, we can provide these cable style firearm locks to the community as well as help start the dialog between parents and their children about firearm safety. Ascension St Joseph’s Hospital has made a commitment to our surrounding community to help, not only during illness and injury, but to assist in reducing health risks as much as possible. This event allowed us to bring Ascension and the community together to provide the opportunity for educating in safe firearm storage as well as health screenings. Though these issues are quite different, both risks can be reduced though education.”
We encourage Milwaukee County residents to help MCSO keep our parks safe by downloading the MCSO Mobile App. Milwaukee County residents and visitors to Milwaukee can submit anonymous tips, report criminal activity in our parks and receive alerts from MCSO. Search MCSO Mobile App to download, the App is available for Andriod and IOS.
We encourage residents to like us on Facebook @MilwaukeeCountySheriff and follow us on Twitter @MCSOSheriff. We want to thank you and all of our partners for making the Parks & Public Safety Day events successful, and for all you do to make our community safe.
