Ready for action

Students receive emergency response training

January 15, 2006

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - The Valley is gradually building a force of trained young men and women who are equipped to respond to natural disasters, major accidents and a slew of emergency situations.

On Saturday, 100 Mat-Su high school students completed the final steps of an eight-week community emergency response team program that transforms local residents into qualified emergency responders.

&#8220They learn how to rescue people, how to search for people in the dark, how to carry people to safety,” said Beatrice Adler, the Mat-Su Borough's emergency management programs coordinator. &#8220These programs are based in the fact that everyone can do something.”

To date, the program has trained nearly 300 Valley residents over the past two years. Adler said she hopes to expand classes to even more residents in the future.

While the CERT training has a 30-year history, it recently received a major funding boost in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. CERT is funded nationally through the Department of Homeland Security to equip everyday citizens for emergency situations.

While Alaskans may never see an attack on the scale of 9/11, the state certainly contains its share of natural threats and outdoor dangers.

&#8220We take the national training and localize it,” Adler said. &#8220For example, in medical training we added quite a bit about hypothermia and what to do when you're out snowmachining. We don't spend much time talking about heat exhaustion, but we do talk about avalanches and volcanos.”

Adler said she and other CERT trainers will teach the eight-week course for free to any groups that request the training. So far, Colony High School is the only Mat-Su school to take up the offer. The students who graduated from the program Saturday came from Wasilla, Palmer and Colony high schools. They spent one two-hour block per week training after school.

Future classes are available for churches, nonprofits, businesses and anyone else who expresses an interest.

&#8220We are working to get this program in every high school,” Adler said. &#8220This training makes people a valuable resource to their community. Having someone at an emergency that can help is very important.”

People must be at least 16 to enter the program. For more information, contact Adler at 373-8822.

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266 or joel.davidson@ frontiersman.com.