Big trucks bring big smiles to children at 2nd annual Touch-A-Truck in Frazer
Finding it too cool for the pool on Saturday, Brielle Lander brought her 3-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter to the Frazer No. 2 fire department’s second annual Touch-A-Truck.
While there were fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances, and big equipment such as a dump truck, tanker truck and tow truck, it was a mini-excavator that Ethan Lander and many other kids seemed to like the most, climbing into its cab and getting their hands on the controls.
“He loves trucks,” said Lander, of O’Hara. “We decided we would come check it out.”
They didn’t have to drag his sister, Penny, along.
“She likes it, too,” Brielle Lander said.
The afternoon event in the Pittsburgh Mills mall parking lot was a fundraiser for Frazer Volunteer Fire Department No. 2, said Assistant Chief Kerri Shoop. It included more than a dozen food trucks, from which Shoop said the department received 10% of their profits.
“We like to do this for the community and the kids,” she said.
Shoop said it was her idea to hold the event for the first time last year, as people were looking for things to do outdoors because of the covid pandemic. While she said about 1,000 people came last year, heavy rain put a damper on it.
That wasn’t the case this year, with the temperature in the high 70s, a mix of clouds and sun, and — most importantly — no rain.
“This year is way better,” Shoop said. “I hope we do well.”
The Sciulli family, of Baldwin, included a stop at Touch-A-Truck in their day that saw them first visit the wildflower festival at Freedom Farms in Butler County.
Sophie Sciulli said she often looks online for events to take her son, Christopher, 2, to, and that’s how they found their way to Frazer on Saturday.
Christopher’s father, Nicholas Sciulli, hoisted his son atop the front bumper of a Frazer No. 2 fire truck for a photo.
“He just loves trucks,” Sophie said. “He knows them all.”
Shoop said the fire department will look to hold the event again around this time next year.
Brian C. Rittmeyer, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College, has been with the Trib since December 2000. He can be reached at brittmeyer@triblive.com.
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