(Radio Iowa) – A summer camp coming up in Iowa City will let kids learn what it is like to work in emergency services. Lieutenant Mike Smith with the Iowa City Fire Department say they do it for not only junior high students, but also high school students and thought this would be a good program to just spur an interest in emergency services,” he says. Lieutenant Smith says the camp includes the Iowa City police and fire departments, Animal Services, University of Iowa Department of Public Safety, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Johnson County Ambulance Service, and Johnson County Emergency Management.

“The camp is hands on. And they have the opportunity to do what we do in our jobs,” Smith says. That includes pulling a fire hose through a maze made of plywood to see how firefighters work. “That’s the great thing about our camp is we’re not sitting in a classroom. They’re not sitting there in front of us screen learning PowerPoint, everything is hands,” Smith says. “The police department, they bring out one of their police cruisers and they get to be in the police cruiser and see what it’s like on in the day of life of a police officer.” Smith says they let students know about the whole scope of their work.

“We talk about the good and the bad of our jobs, you know, obviously, it’s not all fun when you’re dealing with emergency management, or when you’re dealing with emergencies,” Smith says. Smith says part of the camp teaches how to deal with stress and they teach them first aid and C-P-R, so they have skills that they can take home and use. Smith says the professionals involved also talk to the students about the importance of serving the community.

“Being able to be a part of your community and serve your community in that fashion is just an added bonus,” Smith says. “And if we can, we can recruit those students from our community that represent our community even better and that’s part of our goal as well. You know, we want our departments our ambulance everything we will want them to be representative of our communities.” The first camp session for junior high students is scheduled for July 10th and 11th, and the next session for high school students is scheduled for July 13th and 14th.