Have You Seen Them? CERTs Assist in Local Mill Valley Events

You may have noticed some new volunteers assisting the police department during our latest public events in Mill Valley, including the Memorial Day Parade, Dipsea Race and the Backyard Camp-Out at the Community Center. 

Those folks in green vests were members of Mill Valley CERT, Community Emergency Response Team. 

CERT is a national emergency volunteer program, sponsored by FEMA under Citizen’s Corp. These volunteers have participated in training in team organization, fire suppression, light search & rescue and disaster first aid and will be able to help their families, neighbors & community in the event of a disaster. 

In recent years, CERTs have also begun to help in non-disaster events, such as public education and public events. CERTs assisted with crowd & traffic control at the Parade & Race and helped with a preparedness relay for the public at the Camp-Out. Thank you to the CERTs that volunteered to help out at these recent events!

The CERT program was developed in So. California in the mid-80’s and San Francisco and Marin County weren’t far behind in creating training for CERTs through local fire departments. 

Marin County CERT hosts ten 18- hour trainings each year around the county. Cost is still only $45.00 and scholarships are available. 

You can find out more & register for the next Mill Valley training on Oct. 11 & 18 atwww.readymarin.org . Read about national CERT at http://www.fema.gov/community-emergency-response-teams