There will be a CERT Class at the Calhoun County EMA January 10, 17, & 24th. Saturdays. If you are interested in attending these classes please email dblevins@calhounema.org.

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Everybody remember, the CERT Train-the-Trainer class will be held at Jacksonville High School starting Monday, March 17, from 6pm - 10pm. Class will run Monday-Friday 6p-10p and also on Saturday 9am-noon.

The Regular CERT Meeting at EMA has been cancelled! Those of you who are available are encouraged to attend Tuesday's Train-the-Trainer session at the high school.

If you have any questions regarding signing up for the class, please call the EMA at (256) 435-0540.

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The March CERT class will be Tuesday, March 18, 6:00pm at the Calhoun County EMA. We will be training on moulage (injury simulation) kits and how to use them for disaster simulations and first aid training. Everyone will have the chance to make up various injuries while, at the same time, refresh training on different injuries, their causes, and their treatments.

Remember the Storm Spotter Workshop on March 1, 9 am - 3 pm, at the Auburn Canine Training Facility at Ft. McClellan, located on Rucker Street near JSU McClellan.

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First off, congratulations to the Family Links AmeriCorps CERT class! We recently graduated over a dozen folks from the Basic CERT. Everyone had a great time, so thanks to all involved! Also, special thanks to our instructors: Anniston Fire Department, Harold Rhodes, Rick Freeman, Denise Rucker, Bill Schaubel, Jason Mullinax, Mikey Phillips, Buck Wade, and Debbie Blevins. Pictures coming soon!

A few housekeeping items:

Thursday, February 7, 7pm - ABC33/40 will be at the Anniston City Meeting Center with their Storm Alert 2008 program. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

Tuesday Feb. 12 - Friday Feb. 15 - Radiological/nuclear awareness/operations training at EMA. See calendar for details if interested.

February 17 - 22 - Alabama Severe Weather Awareness Week 2008.

Tuesday, February 19, 6pm - Our February CERT meeting at the Cahoun County EMA. As always, everyone's invited to attend and to bring friends.

Saturday, March 1 - Our friends from the National Weather Service in Birmingham will be providing an all-day storm spotter session for us with both Basic and Advanced Storm Spotter classes. We'll have some special speakers from JSU and the TV24 weather crew. See the Community Calendar (link at the top of this page) for more details. Note: If number of registrants increases, we might move the class to JSU. This will be a very valuable asset to CERT's, so let's hope for a big turnout!

Wednesday, March 5 - Many Calhoun County agencies will be participating in the Anniston Community Exercise (ACE) '08 a.k.a. CSEPP exercise. If any CERT members are available, aren't already participating with anotether agency, and would like to play a part or observe the drill, please email myself or Debbie so that we can make arrangements.

Remember that Community Awareness Day will be Saturday, April 19, at Oxford Lake.

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We will be conducting a CERT class for the Calhoun County LINC program on Fridays in January 2008. Trainers, if you are available please let me know. They have advised us that some extra room may be available, so if you have friends who would be interested in taking this three-day class please tell them to contact myself or Debbie.

As always, tell your community groups, churches, etc., that we will do this training for free and on whatever schedule they want. Getting the basic CERT class out to as many folks as possible is the most important thing we can do to help folks prepare for emergencies.

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CERT WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE JACKSONVILLE CHRISTMAS PARADE

If you would like to participate, please report to the parking lot of
Sav-a-lot grocery store by 5:00 pm Tuesday evening, November 27, 2007.

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The November CERT meeting for Calhoun County will be at 6:00pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at the Calhoun County EMA in Jacksonville. Again, anyone who is interested in volunteering during emergencies is welcome to attend!

Thanks to everyone who attended the October meeting. I understand that this is a busy time of year for most of us and that the holiday season is already upon us. Several folks have expressed concern about missing our monthly CERT meetings--please don't be distressed if you can't come! All of the training offered at our monthly meetings is presented to enhance the material you receive in the 20-hour CERT course; attendance is not required, but is encouraged. Again, the only requirement for being on our CERT is taking the 20-hour course.

With that said, Rick Freeman and the Piedmont CD Group have said that all county CERT members are more than welcome to attend their monthly training sessions. The same goes for folks who may be interested in the other volunteer groups here in the county (RSVP, Hazmat, Calhoun County Civil Defense, ARES/RACES, Salvation Army, Red Cross). If you're interested in getting in touch with any of these groups, let me know and I'll get you the contact information. Again, thanks to all of these groups for everything you do.

Feel free to contact me, Jonathan Gaddy, at any time via email: jgaddy@calhounema.org

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As you may know, we're approaching the time of year referred to as the secondary severe weather season for Alabama. Each of us needs to make sure we're ready, and one of the best ways to do that is to get more training. The National Weather Service offers free training to individuals interested in becoming storm spotters under their SKYWARN program. More information can be found at the Birmingham Weather Field Office (WFO BMX) SKYWARN page: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/skywarn/index.php

Rick from Piedmont CD/CERT has advised me that there will be a Basic Storm Spotter class on November 8, Thursday, at 6PM. The class is being held at Rock Run Baptist Church (6575 County Road 29, Centre, AL. / Piedmont Area). For directions please contact Piedmont Police Dept. at (256) 447-9091
or Cherokee County Central Dispatch at (256) 927-3938. All are encouraged to attend.

Additionally, Saturday Nov. 10 (8:30am-3pm) at the BJCC in B'ham, ABC33/40 will be hosting Storm Alert XTREME 2007 including Basic Spotter, Advanced Spotter, storm reporting procedures, and lectures on storm research in Alabama. James Spann and Brian Peters are doing most of the event. Admission is free. Registration isn't required--just show up. If you're into weather, this is for you! For more information, see
http://www.jamesspann.com/wordpress/?page_id=3361

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Hope everyone is doing well. I just wanted to thank all of our CERT, Calhoun County & Piedmont Civil Defense, RACES, and other partners who were able to make an appearance at Quintard Mall's Severe Weather Awareness Day. Among the groups exhibiting were ABC33/40's meteorologists Brian Peters and Ashley Brand, in addition to several other TV stations and radio stations. Additionally, several meteorologists from the National Weather Service office in Birmingham were on hand with a really neat tornado display and a poster contest for students. Other exhibitors included Talladega County EMA, Gadsden-Etowah EMA, the Salvation Army, Red Cross, Calhoun County 911, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, the CISM team, in addition to several other private vendors and agencies.

The event was a great opportunity to get the word out about CERT, and several individuals expressed an interest in going through CERT training. Plus, Shay Cook from the Calhoun County EMA and myself will be working with Thunder 92.7 and WHMA95 to publicize the CERT program and other volunteer opportunities for those interested in helping out in times of disaster.

In other news, Rick Freeman and the Piedmont CD Group are working with several churches to set up a CERT class for this Fall. After the CERT class is conducted, we'll be doing American Heart Association CPR/FirstAid and a chainsaw operations class. This will be the third complete CERT class for Calhoun County, and we're hoping this will put us with 150 - 200 total persons trained. A thank you is overdue to all of our volunteers, first responders, and community members are helping us to reach our goals!

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Severe Weather Preparedness Day
Calhoun County CERT will participate in Severe Weather Preparedness Day held at Quintard Mall in Oxford, Ala. Thursday, September 27th. Set up for the event will be from 1100 to 1200. The event itself is scheduled for 1pm until 6 pm.
Calhoun County CERT will also use this as a recruiting tool for more citizen involvement with CERT
Location: 700 Quintard Dr
Oxford, AL. 36203

POC Name: Debbie Blevins
POC Phone: 256-435-0540
POC Email: dblevins@calhounema.org

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