Birthday girl rides fire truck to school

Cheyanne Lopez receives ride, party as part of contest

MOSES LAKE — A funny thing happened to Cheyanne Lopez on her way to school this morning.

She got a ride from the Grant County Fire Protection District No. 5 because it was her birthday. And she even got to switch on the siren as the truck pulled into the parking lot.

Lopez got the birthday trip, a tour of the district's Fire Station 8 and a party later in the day with a cake from the Food Pavilion, because she won a drawing contest the fire district held during its Fire Prevention Week in October at the schools within the district, North Elementary and Larson Elementary schools.

Lopez, 10, a fourth-grader at Larson, was the first winner of two to have a birthday.

"It's cool," she said with a chuckle, noting that she was excited when she found out she was the big winner at her school. She drew a picture "of the place you go when there's smoke," she said. That kind of education is important, she said, "so we know when it happens, we'll be ready."

"I think it's cool," Michelle Carpenter, Lopez's mom, said as she watched her daughter try on a firefighter's hat. "She's excited."

So excited it was a little hard to go to sleep the night before the big event, Lopez said. Not only did she get a ride to school and a party in class, but it was also a half-day at school today. Lopez is in Tana Boole's third- and fourth-grade combination class; she said her favorite subjects are math and science.

Other gifts Lopez got for her birthday included a stuffed fox, makeup and Bratz dolls.

"And I got to go bowling," she said.

The second winner's birthday, Yuliya Lutsyk from North Elementary, is March 27.

It's the first time the station has offered the contest, Grant County 5 EMS business manager Barbie Maier said.

"We go out every year to schools and provide fire prevention education," she said.

That education includes Exit Drills In The Home (EDITH) lessons, when to call 911, escape plans from the home and what to do when there's smoke in the house.

"We wanted to make it something to where we know the results of what we were doing — if it was getting through to them, gauge what they were getting out of lectures and the education," Maier said of holding the contest.