BE PREPARED: PROJECT IMPACT TEAMS SCOUTS AND UNIVERSITY FOR EXPLORER POST

The Cape Girardeau community, looking for another way to promote emergency preparedness, is offering a way for teen-agers to get involved.

The city, through Project Impact, has teamed with the American Red Cross, the Boy Scouts, Southeast Missouri State University and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse to form a new Emergency Management Explorer Scout Post.

Project Impact is a national initiative to promote disaster preparedness in communities. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt will be in Cape Girardeau Friday to officially welcome the city into FEMA's Project Impact program.

The signing ceremony and the explorer post are the next steps for emergency planners in the community, working on preparedness for the past several years.

This is Earthquake Awareness Week in Missouri, a time to encourage Missourians to be prepared in case of an earthquake or other disaster.

"A community doesn't get ready for a disaster a whole community at a time," explained Ron MacCubbin with the American Red Cross. "We have to do it a family at a time. One or two start getting ready. They talk to friends and neighbors. Then they talk to others. The powers that be get involved. That's how a community gets ready."

In Cape Girardeau County, planning has included an ever-growing circle of involvement.

"We may be the best prepared community in the state of Missouri," MacCubbin said. "We're the model for the rest of the state."

But preparing includes always expanding the circle of involvement.

An Explorer Post reaches boys and girls ages 14 to 20. The Red Cross is sponsor of the post. MacCubbin is one of the adult leaders.

A survey of high school students indicated an interest in careers in the emergency management fields.

"This opens doors to them long before they get to college," MacCubbin said. "And these are the people who will move up and take over when I retire. They will have a solid bedrock of knowledge about what's going on."

Explorer Scouts determine themselves what projects they will complete. Adult leaders have some suggestions, but the decisions will be left to members.

Ann Elledge, earthquake education specialist at Southeast Missouri State University, will soon take over as Project Impact coordinator. She is also one of the adult leaders of the post.

"We'll be throwing ideas out to the students and letting them pick," Elledge said.

Explorers could be called upon as support personnel during a disaster, like an earthquake, flood or tornado. They could be trained as storm watchers. They could help design family and business preparedness plans.

"One possibility is having these students go into homes in the community to do mitigation," Elledge said. "They could strap down hot water heaters or install fire alarms."

A corps of Explorer Scouts could be trained as emergency preparedness instructors.

"I'm a big fan of training older kids to teach younger kids," MacCubbin said, "and that gives us a way to reach another generation, those who aren't even 14 years old yet."

In addition, bringing a message of preparedness to youngsters means parents are likely to get the same message.

"You start with the little ones, train them to make family disaster plans," MacCubbin said. "Then a community will start thinking about survival and recovery."

The initial meeting for the Emergency Management Explorer Post is at 7 p.m. next Monday at the Osage Community Centre. Free pizza, soda and door prizes will be available. Parents are welcome, but not required.