Community Emergency Response Team

The stimulating point to join was after the Japanese tsunami and watching it with my wife and kids. I knew I needed to be better prepared, so I found and joined our local C.E.R.T the Community Emergency Response Team, which had been originally implemented on a national level. That at least got me started with some of the main tools I needed as well as much guidance by Aaron Grossman who leads the Mountain View team. I started some supplemental training, which was led by Lynn Brown the Coordinator of the Office of Emergency Services with the Mountain View Fire Department. On August 24th, 2011 we were on our second night of training and earlier that day had served as a great lesson even though the impact from the 5.8 earthquake centered in Virginia was minimal we were able to tackle some tough realities like the fact that my Grandfather would need some major assistance walking down four flights of stairs in the case of another emergency. It also solidified the importance of having this background knowledge (as they say here in California) not in case something happens, but WHEN the next one happens. I have also reserved time to go get licensed as an Amateur HAM radio operator and Lynn asked about helping out with the Spanish C.E.R.T class , which would be awesome. I would like nothing more than to do the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in this short life span of ours. There is still more to learn as always so on and forward to the next chapters.