By Jennifer Upshaw
Marin Independent Journal (California)
MARIN, Calif. — Quick-and-easy disaster training isn’t just for grown-ups anymore.
Organizers behind Get Ready Marin are beginning to pitch GR5, a new curriculum for Marin’s fifth-graders, to educators in Marin’s cities and towns. The two-hour countywide training program to help people prepare for emergencies such as earthquakes, floods or fires has trained more than 9,000 county residents since it debuted in September 2007.
The course work, designed to be integrated into the earth science curriculum, is a one-hour lesson that includes colorful manuals, disaster myths and role-playing that gives students a chance to learn about disasters.
The idea, developed by several mothers active in the Get Ready program and nurtured by a Get Ready steering committee, was test-run last spring at Tiburon’s Bel Aire School.
Schools that choose to incorporate the curriculum teach students to work with their families on local hazards, home evaluation, family emergency plans, evacuation routes and emergency kits.
Getting them young is important, said Angela Del Ponte, community emergency preparedness coordinator for San Rafael.
“That’s what we’re hoping, by targeting the younger generation, that we kind of foster this kind of preparedness in them as adults,” she said. “We’re hoping that by targeting the younger adult that they grow up with this and understand the importance of disaster preparedness and fostering a more resilient community.”
Indoctrinating young people also is aimed at reaching untrained adults, said Laurie Nilsen, emergency services coordinator for Belvedere and Tiburon.
“Now they’re going to go home and say ‘Mom, Dad, what are we doing to get ready?’” Nilsen said. “As a parent I cannot imagine anything more horrible than being stuck in your home and you can’t take care of your kids, so were really reaching out to this group hoping to get to them through their kids.”
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