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	VALLEY CENTER CERT *Mary Meade Volunteer Program Manager, Valley Center CERT* Valley Center graduated three CERT trainers during the three day FEMA Train-the-Trainer class held in San Diego this week. Valley Center CERT Program Manager Mary Meade, Valley Center CERT graduate Maj. Bill Bensch, and transplanted Rancho Cucamonga CERT volunteer Dave Dugger, joined the ranks of 40 new San Diego professional and volunteer emergency responders who are now qualified to train other trainers to deliver their local CERT programs. Communities represented by fire fighters or local citizen groups included Santee/Lakeside, Hidden Meadows/Deer Springs, Imperial Beach, Sweetwater High School, Campo, Guidant Corporation-Temecula, Chula Vista Elementary School District, San Diego Fire, Rancho Santa Fe Fire, Solana Beach Fire, Del Mar Fire, the City of Chula Vista, and Coronado Fire. Trainers will return to their communities to help establish cadres of community volunteers capable of helping their neighbors in times of disasters.
In April of last year the Valley Center Fire Board approved the establishment of a CERT program in Valley Center, while acknowledging the inability of the Valley Center Fire Protection District to sponsor the program due to budget and manpower limitations. Fire Chief Howard Maxcy of the San Pasqual Tribe of the Mission Band of Indians stepped in and, along with Tribal Chairman Alan Lawson, has been instrumental in facilitating the establishment of the Valley Center CERT. Valley Center started their first CERT class the weekend prior to the Paradise Fire, which roared through both Valley Center and the San Pasqual Reservation, last October. Twenty CERT volunteers graduated in a final class this January.
In Valley Center the free CERT training is comprised of two components, the “Day One” 72 hour disaster readiness training, and the three day “CERT responder” training. “Day One” is designed to move community members out of the fire department’s “Victim Pool” by enabling them to take care of themselves and their family in and after a disaster. Course components include Emergency Preparedness, Disaster Psychology and CERT Organization. Individuals wishing to volunteer on a CERT team must take “Day One” as well as three additional days of course modules which include Medical Operations, First Aid, Triage, Fire Safety/Suppression, Search and Rescue, Terrorism, and final drills. Once graduates are sworn in they are registered with the County as Disaster Service Workers, which provides for Workers Comp coverage on all incidents in which the Fire Department activates them. More information on CERT may be found at http://www.vccert.org or at http://www.sdcertcouncil.org.


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