About 110 Alexandra, Omakau, and Clyde primary school year 6 pupils took part in the half-day Clued-up Kids event in Alexandra last Thursday, rotating through 10 activities.
Civil defence emergency management adviser and event organiser Jacqui Lambeth said the goal of Clued-up Kids was to build resilient children who knew what to do in an emergency.
"If anything ever happens they’re not going to panic ... and they know what to do."
Year 6 was a good age where children were "hungry to learn".
“The kids are really really engaged and asking really good questions,” Ms Lambeth said.
“It’s really good to see.”
Agencies had been keen to take part and saw it as a good way to spread their message, Ms Lambeth said.
“We all know that messages start from the kids and build their way up to the adults.
“Hopefully, these kids can go home and let [adults] know what to do if there’s a fire or get their go-bags organised if they need one, or what to do in an earthquake.
Her highlight was the Civil Defence "shake trailer", used to simulate earthquakes up to magnitude 5.
Being able to experience an earthquake situation and knowing "this is what it feels like" was very helpful, Freya said.
Ms Lambeth said it was the first time the event had been held in Central Otago and she hoped it would continue in the area.
“We’ll start off small and we’ll see where we go from there."
