All-volunteer Community Emergency Response Team hopes to expand group beginning in February.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
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Tuesday, January 22
If you had the opportunity to visit the local warming centers or overnight shelters during the days that followed Hurricane Sandy, chances are you met members of the Long Valley Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT. CERT is a nationwide initiative to train individuals to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their neighborhoods and communities. Last September, the first Long Valley CERT members graduated from their training, and were almost immediately faced with providing help during the most severe storm in recent memory. Jim Smith, the Washington Township Operations Coordinator for Emergency Management and Bruce Clark, Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator, spent several months in once-a-week evening …
Volunteers will undergo trainings and certifications over next half year.
Fresh off certifying the first class making up Washington Township’s Office of Emergency Management Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.), the group’s deputy coordinator is back in recruitment mode. Jim Smith, the Washington Township Police Department’s facilities manager spent five months coordinating trainings and lesson plans for the group of 11 town volunteers, who will now aid the town and first responders during emergency situations. Smith already has five members signed up for the second class, he said, but is looking for much more. “The first class (of 11) is great, but I’d like to double the total number,” Smith said. “I think a team of 20 to 25 members would be very strong.” Volunteers who sign up to be part of the group …
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Washington Township Police Department
1 E Springtown Rd, Long Valley, NJ
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Tracy Tobin
12:21 am on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
My daughter is one of the first group of unpaid volunteers trained. She spent several days staffing town shelters and working the phones at the OEM Center during Sandy. I hope we get more residents to take the training. Hopefully we will not have another two week weather event like Sandy any time soon, but I am sure there will be other events where CERT volunteers can help residents while … more ›