Didn’t get to blog last night because I frankly ran out of steam.  I’m a disaster service volunteer and there was a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) drill last night.  I enlisted the help of my son and my (almost) daughter – both seniors in high school (helps with their community service requirement plus good exposure for them).

Every time I go through a drill, I come away noting the chaos but realizing that it’s so important that people have someone even slightly knowledgeable to look to for help.  In these situations practice can’t make perfect, but it sure makes better.

Do you know where and what your area disaster center (ADC) is?  It’s your local library.  The library staff have specific training in order to fulfill this role – drills like last night’s help them and help us.  It’s always chaotic, but we always learn new things.  Some of us just did the role-playing part, taking various scenarios and doing our best to be as high anxiety and distressed as we could. The pesky teenagers were awesome.  I am very proud.

My (almost) daughter mentioned to me jokingly that the participants were mostly senior citizens and no cute young guys.  I said we’re working on the cute young guy thing, but as for the seniors, they’re all very feisty and engaged senior citizens. The point about community service is that everyone has a part to play, limitations in physical ability do not exclude you, they are taken into account and you are put to work where you can do the most good.  Everyone has something they can contribute.  I’d really encourage you all to look into joining your own CERT.

P.S. I am participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge this month – a blog a day if I can.