Wednesdy, February 10, 1800 (6:00pm) Navarre CERT board/staff meeting at the Holley-Navarre Seniors Association Center, James Harvell Rd at Presidio St, across from the Navarre Library. Any member of Navarre CERT is welcome to attend. If you plan to raise an issue or make a presentation, please notify the Admin Section Chief no later than February 8, 2010. Note the date. This is the normal schedule. The previous date shown (2/17) was in error.

Saturday, February 13, 1100-1500 (11:00am-3:00pm) Navarre Mardi Gras Parade. Navarre CERT will assist Sheriff's personnel with traffic control along the route. Also, our mobility trailer will be in the parade again this year. Details and sign-up form

Saturday, February 27, 0700-1100 (7:00am-11:00am) YMCA 5K run. Note: it is possible, even likely, that CERT's tasks will be finished long before 11:00. Details & sign-up form

Saturday, February 27, 0800-1300 (8:00am-1:00pm) Santa Rosa County Health Departments H1N1 Vaccine distribution, at the United Methodist Church in Navarre. This is a reschedule of the January 9 event that was cancelled due to the cold weather.
Details and sign-up 

Requests for Our Assistance at Community Events Please do not make any commitments for Navarre CERT to "work" any community events. All such requests must be brought to a board member. We have a form for requests for our assistance. There is a link for it on the navigation bar. The purpose of the form is to gather information that we must have in order to effectively decide whether Navarre CERT will participate, and information that we need for creation of a solid operations plan for the event.

Meeting schedule: team meetings are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month and board/staff meetings on the second Wednesday, both at 6:00pm at the Senior Center. Dates for 2010:

H1N1 (Swine flu) information can be found at this CDC web page.  Thorough hand washing is a must to prevent spread of disease.  See these instructions from the CDC.

Immunization Recommendations for Disaster Responders from the Center for Disease Control

1. Tetanus : In accordance with the current CDC guidelines, responders should receive a tetanus booster if they have not been vaccinated for tetanus during the past 10 years. Td (tetanus/diphtheria) or Tdap (tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis) can be used; getting the Tdap formula for one tetanus booster during adulthood is recommended to maintain protection against pertussis.
2. Hepatitis B : Hepatatitis B vaccine series for persons who will be performing direct patient care or otherwise expected to have contact with bodily fluids

Food, Water and ... NOT ice. In case you weren't aware, the State of Florida won't be supplying ice after a disaster. Read the entire newspaper article. Santa Rosa County doesn't plan to, either. We'll have to rely on stores and ice machines with generators if the power is out.

What Is a Cyclone? Just an interesting bit of information from NOAA.gov: The terms "hurricane" and "typhoon" are regionally specific names for a strong "tropical cyclone". Where you'll find each:
Hurricane : In the northern Atlantic Ocean, the northeast Pacific Ocean east of the Internation Dateline, or the southern Pacific Ocean east of 160E
Typhoon : In the northwest Pacific Ocean west of the international dateline.
Severe tropical cyclone : In the southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E
Severe cyclonic storm : In the northern Indian Ocean
Tropical cyclone : In the southwest Indian Ocean

	The Amazing Chase was a success!  The teams solved the clues,found the destinations, picked up a card at each destination, and raced to the final destination for the awards party. Special thanks to Helen Back Again, the final destination who also donated a gift basket for the prize drawing.

 We all owe a big THANK YOU to Lenore Nicholson and to the rest of the committee: Nancy Sandler, Nancy Morgan, and Chris Arnold. The final tally isn't in yet, but it raised at least $1250 for our treasury.

The first prize of  $500 was won by a team from the Krewe of Jesters. Every person that participated said they had a great time. Not only will they do it again next year, but they'll encourage everybody they know to sign up. The second prize sunset sailboat cruise was won by the team of Jaye Lycan, Terry Parton and Shirley Luke after they won the tie-breaker necessitated by three teams coming in with the same low mileage. 
 

Also, our great appreciation to the UPS Store for donating the printing of our fliers, and Captain Bill Crouch for providing live music at the awards party as well as for donating the second prize sunset cruise. Our gratitude goes to the Navarre Press for all the publicity to ensure the success of the Amazing Chase, and to ERA American Realty  for the advertising on their reader board. Many thanks to our other destinations, all in Navarre. How many do you know? Check them out!
 

* These businesses and organizations also donated items for the prize drawing, as did Navarre Beach Flowers, TC's Front Porch, Juana's Pagoda, Rib Shack and Higher Ground. We thank them all for those, allowing every participant to have at least one prize.

Navarre CERT  will have a pick-up pulling the mobility trailer in the Navarre Krewe of Jesters Mardi Gras parade, February 13. Rather than spend money from our treasury on beads, MoonPies and the like, we are asking for team members to donate things to throw - typical Mardi Gras beads, trinkets and MoonPies. (No candy is allowed in the parade.) If you'd like to do so, please e-mail our Logistics Section Chief to let him know what you'd like to donate and he'll make arrangements with you.

Newsletter covering May through December 2009.

12,199 volunteer hours! That's Navarre CERT's total for 2009. But the number of people volunteering for events has been dropping off recently. That means fewer people working more hours.

FYI  This is a section of this home page with interesting tidbits of information. Recently added is a list of the 2010 dates for board/staff and team meetings.

2010 members of the board of directors, section chiefs, and other staff members are listed on the About Us page. Please be aware that the bylaws of Navarre CERT, Inc., are available through that page as well.

Leather USA Jacket The drawing was held on December 9 at 6:00pm. The jacket has been delivered to the happy winner, Linda Fusco.

Interested in becoming an amateur radio operator (ham)? How about upgrading from your tech license to general? Navarre CERT Communications Coordinator Steve VanDenAkker will coordinate a class and testing if there are enough people interested.  To let him know you are interested, submit our ham class form.

Navarre CERT's first full-scale activation occurred on Saturday, April 26, 2009.  Unfortunately, it was to search the Navarre beaches for a 17-year-old swimmer who had not been seen since 1800 the previous day.  42 Navarre CERT members turned out for service between 1 and 9 hours during the day.  A few spouses and friends turned out, along with five NJROTC cadets and nine members of Santa Rosa County Search & Rescue  Professional first responders were very impressed with our turnout and capabilities. 

Another way to help the Navarre CERT treasury Subscribe to the Navarre Press (the print version, online, or both) now, and you'll lock in your subscription price for three years. Check Navarre CERT as your favorite non-profit and 50% of what you pay will be placed in a reserve for Navarre CERT to use on advertising! Navarre Press subscription page

Recycle for CERT! Yes, you can be "green" for the benefit of Navarre CERT. Bring your empty inkjet printer ink cartridges and old cellphones to the next team meeting and put them in the recycle box. We will be able to redeem them for money to be added to the Navarre CERT treasury. Can't make it to the meeting but you've got a bunch to recycle? e-mail us and we'll figure out how to get them from you.

State of Florida Disaster Reservist Program If you are interested in being part of disaster response and recovery in Florida, beyond the CERT program, this program may be of interest to you. The Division of Emergency Management does not have sufficient numbers of trained disaster specialists to manage and recover from a major or catastrophic disaster, and has initiated a Disaster Reservist program to quickly provide additional human resources to support the states' actions in a disaster. An activated reservist is reimbursed for travel expenses and also receives payment. In times of disaster, reservists who are called to active duty must have the ability to commit a minimum of 15 consecutive days of service. Reservists must also be able to deploy to other areas of the State and may be required to work non-traditional hours (including holidays and weekends). There are training requirements, some of which CERT members have probably already completed. LEARN MORE.....

Navarre CERT Vehicle Sponsorships If you know any business or organization who might like to have their logo or name displayed on our trailer or other Navarre CERT vehicles, please try to sell them on it. We will provide one year's "advertising" for a donation.  Prices depend on the size of the logo or name and whether they're committing to renew for two additional years.  More information is available from board members. 

CERT forms are now available on the "Downloads" page. One file has all the forms that are covered in class. Another is just the Damage Assessment form.

Photos of Navarre CERT "in action" We're always looking for photos of us at work at a festival, information distribution, parade, Caring & Sharing, or other event at which we provided support. If you have any please e-mail us and attach the .jpg files. If the photo needs to be scanned, let us know and we'll arrange something.

Meeting Attendance We currently have more than 100 team members on our roster. Team meeting attendance has improved, but we still see only about a third of you there. Each general team meeting includes refresher or advanced training, and we are doing our best to limit the meetings to no more than two hours. Team meetings occur at 6:00pm on the fourth Wednesday of every month (except November and December) and are held at the EH Pullum Senior Center, across the street from the Navarre Library.

Our team meetings and exercises are designed to keep you abreast of Disaster Preparedness developments within our community, and to offer you an opportunity to maintain and improve your CERT skills. If you have not been to a meeting recently, we strongly encourage you to make an effort to attend the next one.