The horns, sirens, and flashing lights of more than two dozen vehicles filled downtown Moose Jaw as children and families flocked to the fourth annual Touch A Truck event at the Temple Gardens Centre on Sept. 6.

The hands-on showcase once again gave young visitors the chance to climb aboard fire engines, sit in the driver’s seat of tow trucks and school buses, and even honk the horn of a police cruiser.

Organizers said the growing event is meant to spark excitement and imagination while also connecting families to literacy resources in the community.

“This year we have new exhibitors and new heroes,” said Wanda Peakman, co-ordinator for the Moose Jaw Early Years Family Resource Centre. “The Saskatchewan Highway Patrol is new to us this year, the Moose Jaw Humane Society is new, SaskPower is new, and then SaskEnergy is also new. … We’re very happy with it. I think we have about 27 vehicles to sit in and touch, and over 45 heroes are here putting it on.”

The event is hosted each year through a partnership between the Early Years Family Resource Centre, the Moose Jaw Public Library, the Moose Jaw Literacy Network, the Temple Gardens Centre, and the Moose Jaw & District Chamber of Commerce. Since its launch in 2022, the free community day has grown into a late-summer favourite.

“Every year this event gets a bit bigger,” Peakman said. “We’ve had probably over 1,000 people come out today.”

Along with trucks and machinery outdoors, families were invited inside the curling rink to explore play stations, crafts, and book giveaways. For Naomi Setter, acting community outreach librarian at the Moose Jaw Public Library, it was an opportunity to remind families that learning and fun go hand in hand.

“For us, it’s about making community connections. So we’re set up here today with crafts, a little play area, and the Palliser Regional Library van. That’s the van that delivers books throughout the region to different libraries and of course we have information about the Moose Jaw Public Library,” Setter said.

“We’re here because we want people to know about the library and all the services that we offer, and we want to encourage people to use the library. It’s a free service that everybody has access to in Moose Jaw and the surrounding area, and there’s absolutely zero reason why we shouldn’t be using it.

Literacy has always been the theme at Touch A Truck, tying the excitement of meeting everyday heroes with the building blocks of language development. Families left with free books to take home, while conversations about new words and experiences continued long after the horns stopped honking.

Peakman said the positive feedback she’s received makes the work worthwhile.

“So far, I’ve received lots of gratitude — just families thanking us for putting this event on, and talking about how wonderful it is,” she said.

This sentiment was matched by an off-the-record comment by one family who said their children look forward to Touch a Truck all year long and have attended since the very beginning.

Peakman concluded with a message of thanks for the community. “Just a big thank you to all the families for coming out and supporting us,” she said. “Literacy really is foundational to the rest of their lives. We really encourage and promote it at this event, but also at the Family Resource Centre every day.”