Mitch the Fire Safety Match

Add Feedback

Share |

A volunteer firefighter in the Ft Worth, Texas area has come up with a new book to teach children fire safety. After teaching fire prevention in his wife's classroom, Scott Rice had an idea for a fire match character, asked an artist to design it and "Mitch the Fire Safety Match" was born. The book is designed in two ways, "one is to teach kids not to play with matches and the other is, it shows kids what can happen if they do play with matches," Rice said in a telephone interview. "It took looking at somebody's artwork to actually go ahead and put it in book form," Rice said. And the reviews so far, "the kids loved it!" he exclaimed.

"Mitch the Fire Safety Match" is designed for children in Kindergarten through 2nd Grade and can be personalized for any fire department. He can put a photograph of a department's truck or anything else they want on the cover along with using the name of the department in the story line. "You hand a kid a book and it's got a picture of a truck of their department...well that firefighter cares for me," Rice explained.

Rice has been a volunteer firefighter for 11 years with different departments. Currently he volunteers for both the Crowley Fire Department and the Everman Volunteer Fire Department along with his daytime job as a mailman. "I have a radio for Everman and I carry a pager for Crowley. If there's a fire in Everman, I'll either go to their station and catch a truck or stay with Crowley and man one of their trucks because we go help them," Rice said. "I've always wanted to be a fireman...it still gives me an opportunity to do what they do and still support my family."

Rice never thought his idea would actually become a reality, now that it has, he wants to get departments interested in purchasing the book. "Everybody loves the idea, but I can't get anybody to commit to it," he said. "I know from being with two departments that everybody has a fire prevention budget and most of them have Elementary Schools," Rice went on to say, "A lot of the budgets, of course, have either been cut or they're just scared to spend money right now."  He explained that with a volume sale of 10,000 copies the cost would be less than 45 cents a book while smaller sales would cost more per book.  The turnaround time is about ten days after a department places an order.

"We also have bookmarks that have the logo on the left side and again, if they've got a fire truck they want to use we'll put it in the middle. The right side is 'dial 9-1-1 fire police and ambulance,'" Rice explained. The price of the bookmarks is less than 16 cents each with an order of 2,000. Rice is also able to make a 4x2 inch sticker with whatever a department would want on it.

For more information on "Mitch the Fire Safety Match" or to order copies, visit www.michmatch.org


Author:Barbara Brooks - FDNNTV.com