Kadena promotes safety through annual fair

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Omari Bernard
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  The 18th Wing hosted their second annual Safety Wingman Day May 21 to promote Comprehensive Airman Fitness and safety for Kadena Airmen and their families.

As with other similar events throughout the years, the day focused on individual and group safety throughout everyday activities.

However, Tech. Sgt. Erich Basler, 18th Wing Ground Safety specialist, said unlike last year, the event this year took a different approach to teaching attending service members safe practices than the more traditional means from years before.

"People were able to pay attention and talk to the experts at the booths," Basler said. "It's important because it gives us a chance to step back and see how things are properly done. It's a good time to remember the rules and regulations that are there and how it should be done."

Though last year was the first iteration of the new approach, Basler said this year's turnout marked a momentous improvement on turnout and participation.

"Last year was the first year, and we had about 1,500 people," he said, "but this year we had about 3,000. We also had twice as many booths compared to last year."

The day began with individual units meeting together to participate in command specified training.

Later in the morning Safety Wingman Day featured a Safety Fair with static displays, food vendors, prize drawings and high-engagement booths that promoted occupational and personal safety, resiliency, professional development, and fun in a family friendly environment.

"Safety is one aspect of resilience," said Lisa Velez, 18th Wing community support coordinator. "There's this misconception that we are all linear - this is my mission and that is your mission. Truly, to integrate the Comprehensive Airman Fitness principles we need to work collaboratively as a community. We can get a lot further working together. It's better for the caring and keeping of our community."

The Safety Fair featured activity booths and events such as emergency preparedness, water safety and a motorcycle parade for all service members on Okinawa that promoted motorcycle safety. The event also served as a kick-off to summer festivities and a reminder to maintain safe practices during favorite summer pastimes from diving to cookouts.

According to Velez, what made the event a success wasn't just the information, however. Instead, it was cooperation and interaction of the community that pushed the day forward.
The fair was made possible by a coalition of multiple units, agencies and organizations on the installation.

Rather than hosting a fair with a stack of informational pamphlets at every station, booths were interactive offering activities such as agency specific Jeopardy or holding snakes at entomology. Each booth tied into the safety training that day and helped address the four pillars of Comprehensive Airman Fitness: spiritual, physical, mental and social.

"What's particularly exciting about Safety Wingman Day, is that as we came together and collaborated on promoting resilience, there's so many ways to look at that," Velez said. "We want to get out of the idea that it's just this briefing with these PowerPoint slides and those two videos and move toward a culture change. Everyone came together to support this."