CERT training - and DRS
I am going thru CERT training this weekend. It stands for Community Emergency Response Team, and is part of a national program to help communities. It teaches citizens to help out the fire, police and rescue staff in case of emergencies, and also to assist with large municipal events. http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/ Our nearby city of Mankato is starting up a program, and I applied to be part of it. It involves a standardized training program of 20 hours, followed by a test. They have 3 training classes - one on Tuesday evenings for 4 hours x 5 weeks, another on Thursday evenings and the last one (mine) that is a weekend program. We met tonight for 4 hours, and then 8 hour days tomorrow and Sunday. I had a chance to present about the DSR (Disaster Stress Relief Dog) program that Chewie and I are in. It went really well, and Chewie was a huge hit! In fact it went so well, that the lead police officer for the program came out to my car afterwards and asked if Chewie can come and complete the rest of the class with me and our group!   So I'm getting my lunch and bag packed, and also one for Chewie as well. We got done at 10pm tonight, and resume tomorrow at 8am...so busy, busy weekend! Good thing it's a crappy weather weekend here...won't be missing doing anything outside anyway.  |
|
|
| Oh boy, Chewie will have a CERT title to add to his alphabet soup. I'm sure he'll do well on the written exam. Orals for sure. |
| That great that you have done so well |
I can't wait to give Chewie a big hug. He is my hero! I like you too, Dawn, but Chewie is, well, he is Chewie!!  |
| Quite an accomplishment for both of you. You will be busier than ever but you seem to thrive on that. |
Technically, the CERT training is for me.  However, I got asked to do a short 30 minute presentation on how the DSR dogs can be of benefit to a community in times of a disaster. One of our missions with DSR is to get the word out to our local communities about what the dogs can offer, and this CERT program seemed a perfect way for me to do this. And it worked - the deputy public safety director wants Chewie and I to come present to the police and fire departments in the future We do our last sessions ("light" search and rescue) tomorrow AM, then we do our skills and written tests. I hope Chewie is a help! Interestingly, most of the police and fire staff that are presenters come and hug Chewie after they teach their portion...so I think the stress relief part is working  |
| Don't underestimate Chewie's ability to help you on the exam, I'm sure he'd score well on his own. Who isn't put at ease by a big hairy gentle oes dog. Like a living stuffie. Bond has big paws to step into. |
| That's awesome! Cindy |
| You and Chewie are a great team! Love that the big ole fireman and policeman need a sheepie hug! |
got sheep wrote: Interestingly, most of the police and fire staff that are presenters come and hug Chewie after they teach their portion...so I think the stress relief part is working It's safe for a big, tough emergency services guy to give Chewie a hug, you know he's a dog and all. AND Chewie doesn't give them any back chat. |
Mim wrote: got sheep wrote: Interestingly, most of the police and fire staff that are presenters come and hug Chewie after they teach their portion...so I think the stress relief part is working It's safe for a big, tough emergency services guy to give Chewie a hug, you know he's a dog and all. AND Chewie doesn't give them any back chat. That's right! Pigtails and all, they still hug him Oh, and for morning snack they brought in a HUGE box of donuts for us!!!   ...hope they do again this morning .... |
| Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm donuts! Not original but can't say it any better. |
Well we finished yesterday.  We were split into teams of 5 people. We did our search and rescue in a simulated damaged building (with youth corps volunteers being the injured and dead victims) and had to extricate and get them out. The next part, we manned the med ops station and sorted and cared for the injured. Lastly we did our fire fighting exercise and put out a fire with a team mate. Chewie was along with for all the exercises - there were some photos taken of all of us testing out - so I may have some to post from the city website later on. I was the Team Leader for the search and rescue portion - it was stressful, but quite fun! At the med ops station, he licked some of the victims! The teens loved it Then we went inside and took our written test. We could use our group for the test, so we all did well, as each of us had some different expertise. And then we all got our certificates. This is a really good program. The goal is to have community members trained to look out for themselves and family, and then also be able to help 1st responders in case of an emergency. But really stressed throughout the class - if you did nothing more with the knowledge gained but be better able to take care of yourself and your family in an emergency, it is worth it. That means the emergency personnel can be free to take care of others who need them more. We each got a special backpack fully equipped with supplies - masks, gloves (leather and PPE), 1st aid kit, flashlights, a whistle, a crescent wrench, a multi tool (axe,pry bar, shuts off water mains and gas lines, etc), a safety vest, hard hat, goggles, warming blanket, duct tape and more! We will have some more classes later, but this was the basic 20 hour class to get us started. Our group will serve the City of Mankato (nearest city to me - edge of town about 10 miles away from us), but also through mutual aid agreements serve the 3 surrounding counties. Also if interest - while Mankato has a pop of 50,000, the daytime pop is over 100,000 each day d/t the number of people who come to work here...never thought about that! CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training is wonderful - here's a link : http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/index.shtm This is a US - wide program. Not sure if other countries have something similar, but it is a good thing. If you have a CERT program near you, I highly recommend attending. It is totally free, and you learn a LOT! |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|