Though just normal people (ok, normal, above-average, and chickens like me), those who have attended classes and done a mock disaster drill, however tiny, earned their certificate, and many have signed up to become team members. Across the country, C.E.R.T. members have already proven their worth during natural disasters in communities for years.

In many cases they become the first responders, walking from house to house or business to business before the professionals can get there. Obviously there are limits to what they can do, but there is plenty they can do! They are trained:

• from basic first aid such as stopping bleeding and making splints out of whatever is available,
• to putting out small fires
• to turning off gas and water
• to removing those they can from further harm.
• Not to be left out is instruction in the basic psychology of how people, including the rescuers, may react.

Another C.E.R.T. function is to get information to the command center on what the needs are of their local areas and how many people are in such dangerous situations that they need be rescued by professionals, when heavy equipment is needed.Leon and I took the classes and earned our certificates. For him to learn it is just a normal thing. For me to even consider taking it has probably completely thrown the universe, for I am a complete chicken who gets nauseous at just about anything — and it was my idea to take the classes. Yes, I was probably the weakest link in the class, and yes, I mainly took it so that I could, at least, know enough not to need rescuing! And honestly, I am sure several members of our class were glad I didn’t live in their neighborhood or that at least when Leon was home one of us would be coordinated enough. . . but!

But! I, at least, now know:

• how to use a fire extinguisher without having to stop to read the directions
• how not to use a fire hose
• how to turn off gas and water and electric
• how to assess who needs immediate help and who can wait (triage)
• how to use common objects to make a splint
• ways to stop bleeding
• how to move people when possible without injuring ourselves
• how to work as a team with people we don’t know

Sure, a lot of us know some of this and the other helpful things they teach, but refreshers are always a good thing. . . And I can tell you that just a few years later, I need the refresher. I can only hope, if I need the information it is lurking in my head… kind of like the self-protection moves I learned in Tae Kwon Do classes years ago. Many of you are not like me, you will retain more, especially if you go into it without fear.

For the record, C.E.R.T. members are reminded to put themselves first again and again, because if they try to do something they are not able to do with their skills they become not ONLY just one more person for the professionals to rescue, but one less person to rescue/help the many. That is something we all, as everyday people need to remember even in life’s daily emergencies.

By the way, those large X’s with writing you have seen on doors in disaster news clips. . . they give a lot of needed information to the professionals, including triage information. . . and many of those were made by C.E.R.T. volunteers as they got to their neighbors and friends.

Check it out, even if you are just a chicken like me. . . you may be the very chicken that makes a difference and people may then find out the answer to, “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

——-

Just put C.E.R.T. in your search engine of choice or call your local community’s emergency management group. . . Our small town just had two classes of 17 people each. . . that is 34 more people who now are part of the solution rather than the problem that year – and each year is similar.

Thank you to:

• the Department of Emergency Management of Monroe, Washington, for offering the classes to us
  and teaching much of the class — and answering and repeating the answers – and explaining with patience
• the members of the Police and Fire Departments who shared their time and patiently answered all of our questions
• all those that have attended in an attempt to better themselves, prepare to help others, and encourage each other

C.E.R.T. is a good thing. A very good thing.

My last post here, I wrote that “hearts are expandable” — it was one of my “One Nice Thought” posts, short and sweet. That thought has been in my head and heart a lot lately. Many of you may have heard of Shelly’s Share A Square Project (SAS) – for those that haven’t she commandeered our hearts and received 10,000 squares knitted or crocheted – since June, 2007. She only needed 6,720, so the extras are also being made into afghans for children not attending camp.

Already volunteers, including Shelly, have put together 100 afghans to distribute to the 140 kids who will attend Camp Sanguinity, near Fort Worth, Texas this July. It is a special camp!! But it is told well by Shelly. People came through to make one dream come true… one that will, and has already, affect so many people in a positive way.

But Shelly is an experienced dreamer.

She now wants the blogging community and their family, friends, and assorted strangers to band together and PAY the 150 dollars per child for 140 children to attend this year – and she wants to raise that money in just THREE short months. And you know, we want it, too. I want it, he wants, it she, over there, all who have participated in this project from the beginning or just read about it with a grin on their faces — they want the project to succeed. So, how about it. Take a few minutes to read her post… and take a gander at the gallery of the 100 afghans already completed… (Just follow the link above and at the bottom of the page.)

Don’t stop there! Head on over to twelve year old Mr. T’s blog, Young Warrior, lovingly typed by his grandmother, Matty. No, he is not a Camp Sanguinity camper, but he was the recipient of the first afghan created – when the project was in its infancy, just last year. Check out his reaction, see his afghans with all the tags still intact — and see how important it is to him today.

You will be so glad you stopped by.

And if your checkbook is not empty, why not help us finance the kids weeks at camp this July — Money talks — and the cool thing about raising money this way — it doesn’t take huge amounts from few people — Think about it like feeding a piggy bank — it all adds up! Click here to read the details of the fund raising.

And by the way, they still need little tiny bags to hold the tags so the kids can look at them again and again… they will love seeing how many people helped make their afghans, and their families will be just as excited about it, I am sure! So, after you have read all of the above, click one of the two links below for simple ideas about making the bags and where to send them. — I still have to make some this week, too.

Now, I have to get back to work — but thank you for reading and pulling the kids into your heart.

If you haven’t already read or heard of it, check out this article on Kiva.org. It is a wonderful idea that is growing. I gave, only a little, for now, but that little will be passed on to other businesses as it is repaid… the program makes it easy to just keep reinvesting in the lives of yet another business person… few times 25 dollars can be reused by so many.

Watch this video!

Come on, y’all, enter. I can’t wait to vote on you, find new bands to listen to, find a new favorite singer, do it! Enter! Here are the rules: Battle of the Boomer Bands

Your music video will be shown on 55-Alive! along with the profile you create, I will know you exist as will countless others. Humor an old lady — OK, that old lady over there, somewhere, and then humor ME! Enter. . . Let’s show the younger generation that someone besides the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner still “have it”!!!! Let’s show those lazy bums out there that you can get off your duff and enter. (Did I go too far there?)

I’m watching every single video that enters, even though it will eat time into my poetry writing and my ranting and raving here and my bantering elsewhere and my dreaming of RVing. . . Now, help keep me on the computer, but not typing!!!!! Enter now (or at least next week!)

Stop! Are you thinking that to help Shelly get 6720 squares to have put together as afghans for the kids that attend Camp Sanguinity means you and your friends have to crochet or knit tons of squares, causing your fingers to go numb because of carpal tunnel, your children to be unfed, your husband to be ignored (more than you MEANT to? Guess what! It really doesn’t.

I think many of us – when we mention it to others or in our self conversations – come across as if we want LOTS of squares from them. We are so used to being asked to give all. Even I was thinking that way, losing sight of her REAL quest: to have each afghan show the love of FORTY different people. (Well actually make that minimum of 41 because someone has to crochet them all together).

So, what that means is as few as one or two per person and you have helped! Of course, you could do more, in case not enough people participated or in case they DID and she can start donating them to other camps. So, what is needed is LOTS of people doing VERY LITTLE!

With that thought in mind, if you can do lots, great! Others have and more will have the time, but many don’t have the time, why they are wasting it reading this – or are they? I may have an idea that will work for you or someone you know!

It is you out there that is willing to do just one or two or three that REALLY will make this project be as she envisioned it.

So, let’s rethink how we approach people, remind them that this is SHARE a SQUARE, not give us everything you have. Maybe then more people will have time to participate. All they have to do is make one SIX inch square, then make a little tag with name and location (or just use your business card) and tie it on and stuff it in an envelope.

Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t have that twinkle in your eye, that hint of suggestion in your voice, that smile on your face that says, “but I really really want to see you do a bunch!”

I know if you told me just one I would be more apt to do it than if you told me twenty, although I have managed to get eight done.

I give you, Ways to get more people to do it with you:

- The easiest way: simply ask, it actually worked for me, I was floored!

- Challenge your friends, coworkers, neighbors!

- Challenge the men to put out! (You know what I mean!)

- Invite them over for a desert and coffee and a knit just one square night/afternoon.

- Invite couples over and let the men (unless they do needlework) just do the guy thing and hang out by the pool or over the pool table or in front of the TV while you all knit or crochet a square. They will love the opportunity to spend just a few hours with the guys and you will get to chat without them rolling their eyes or saying, “yeah, right!”

- Bribe those that knit or crochet that have tons of kids and really need to relax – offer to watch the kids for a few hours so they can knit or crochet a square! (OK, I may be pushing my luck now with that idea!)

- If you can knit or crochet, offer to show your neighbors or friends how easy it is (OK, so I haven’t learned to crochet yet, I can knit though.)

- Teach your school age or teenage daughter and her friends. Once they have learned enough to pull off a decent square, let her have her friends over for a girls night, get them a movie for later, snacks, whatever teenagers are in to now. Then show them an easy pattern for a scarf or hat.

- Get the whole family involved on family night! The little ones can stamp or color tags, the one who knits or crochets can do his or her thing, finishing touches or making more, the others can write out tags or further embellish them, someone can punch the hole, tie it on, address the envelope, put the stamp(s) on, and the littlest can put it in the envelope. See how easy it is! Then have a fun desert or play a game the kids have been begging you to play, heck just do Ring around the Rosy or I spy. Make it fun. Count your blessings!

- Write a letter to a relative or friend you have practically ignored for years, tell them you just need ONE little square made, send them the yarn, send them a beautiful photo, a peppermint candy, a cute card. Here is your EXCUSE to write that note you have been meaning to. Send the website url if they use computers.

- Have your children write a letter or allow them to type their first email!

- Do it for yourself if for no other reason, just get lost in the meditative qualities of knitting or crocheting, that quiet rhythm that slows your breathing and quiets your brain. . . and that quietness will envelope a child in love. You will have made a difference to one child by one square, a few minutes (hours?) of your time, even if scattered here and there over several days will affect more lives than just yours — obviously the child receiving the afghan will have the warmth and cuddle factor, the people around the child, especially, will appreciate the time involved and the love behind the time, as they probably have little to give others, and – you will have shown others it can be done, the children around you, especially will have seen that it can be fit in.

You may not be able to fix the world, but you can fix one tiny corner of someone’s heart and expectations of what can be. And that, y’all is one heck of a long term investment in someone’s life that will be passed on down the generations!

NOTE! This is one post you can copy, take pieces of, rephrase, whatever. You don’t need to give me credit or link back here, run with it. . . This does not just apply to Shelly’s Share A Square Project – but to any project. Brainstorming is my favorite thing to do other than tumble words out of my head onto a keyboard. I probably could have come up with more, but I have squares to tag and box up – and I have goofed off long enough! And yes, I am putting this on all my blogs, even their old versions still on Blogspot. Duplicate content, but, hopefully worth your time to read ONCE.

Share a Square, then take on the rest of the world!