Families and friends enjoyed a day at Touch-a-Truck on Saturday morning in downtown Huntsville, Texas, to learn and touch vehicles such as police vehicles, construction trucks and fire trucks seen throughout the community.

Organized by the city of Huntsville’s Main Street Program, first responders and businesses displayed activities and prizes for attendees to connect the community on what the vehicles do on a day-to-day basis.

“[Citizens of Huntsville] are welcome to attend as we would love to have them to discover Huntsville and the historic downtown that we have here,” Huntsville Main Street Program Manager and SHSU alumni Annel Guadalupe said.

This year’s Touch-a-truck event will be the second year for the event, according to Guadalupe, though it was delayed by COVID-19 last year.

“This is to provide a place where children can come and have fun,” Guadalupe said.

Huntsville citizen Al Bartell, the father of Linden and Laurel Bartell, enjoyed the festivities of the event, as he helped his daughters push the fire truck horn during the tours of all the trucks provided for the kids and their families.

“I couldn’t honk it; it was too hard to push,” Linden Bartell said.

Community firefighter and EMT-B Ethan Hardy climbed a 75-foot ladder at the event as the crowd cheered him on. When Hardy descended from the ladder, he showed the kids how firefighters put their equipment on and off.

Meanwhile, the Texas A&M Forest Service members displayed how to set out a fire, allowing kids to use the water hose to put them out.

“A lot of times, especially with kids, when we interact with them for the first time they are very scared because everything is new and they are not familiar with it,” EMT Tamara Braun said. “When they get to walk through it kind of takes the anxiety away if they do need us.”

Thanks to the citizens of Huntsville, many families were able to make memories, become informed about the workers around them and of course walk away with smiles in hopes to return next year.