ANAHEIM : Firefighter Trading Cards Spark Children’s Interest

Twelve-year-old Justin Langford thumbed through a handful of colorful trading cards depicting Anaheim firefighters in dramatic fire and rescue scenes and concluded, “These are cool.”

The new trading cards are part of a community outreach effort by the Anaheim Firefighters Assn. that celebrates two decades of paramedic service and contain messages to children, such as reminders to respect others.

The reaction from kids, said Capt. Joe Gutierrez, a 12-year veteran who came up with the trading cards idea, has been “fantastic.” When firefighters visit schools to distribute the cards, as they did at Thomas Edison Elementary School this week, “it’s kind of amazing to watch,” Gutierrez said. “Within a few minutes, you’ll have about 30 kids surrounding the fire engine” and pressing for autographs.

The Anaheim Firefighters Assn., with financial support from a hospital and local businesses, recently produced the 15-card set that spotlights individual members of the department.

Gutierrez hopes to begin work on a new series this fall and possibly release a set printed in Spanish. He expects the current series will be fully distributed by the end of summer.

This latest effort to reach schoolchildren follows Anaheim firefighter POGs bearing a “Say no to drugs” message and stickers that prompt children to dial 911 in emergencies.

“They loved those things,” Gutierrez said. “They’ll grab anything we give them. We saw the need, and we saw the potential.”

Gutierrez hopes that the cards, in addition to building goodwill, will encourage children to consider careers in fire service.

“I’d like to see one of those kids come back as a firefighter and say, ‘I still have one of those cards you gave me,’ ” he said.