Two local high school juniors recently began work to spread information about emergency management and disaster preparedness to youth in Arkansas.
Avery Catlett, Lake Hamilton, and Brock Rigsby, Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, were among 13 students chosen to lead their schools in emergency preparedness programs. Catlett is the son of Kevin and Janna Catlett. Rigsby, who previously attended Fountain Lake, is the son of Joe and Melissa Rigsby.
The new Arkansas Youth Preparedness Council is the first of its kind in the United States. The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management held its first youth council event Aug. 11 at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock.
Little Rock and Stuttgart were also represented by two students each. Other students were selected from Batesville, Farmington, Floral, Gassville, Mountain Home, Omaha and Springdale. Rigsby was unable to attend due to activities at ASMSA.
The participating students heard presentations from Region VI of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Little Rock Police Department's K-9 unit, SWAT team, bomb unit and hazardous materials team, along with representatives from the Pulaski County Search and Rescue Team and the FBI Counterterrorism team.
"They wanted us to take what we learned there, bring it back to our communities and try to implement it in maybe schools or your county or city," Catlett said.
Additional presentations included topics about earthquake preparedness, Smart 9-1-1, the Student Tools for Emergency Planning Program, the Community Emergency Response Team Program and the See Something, Say Something campaign. Members of the council were chosen to help relay the information to younger students and others in their communities.
"A lot of the programs they have now are targeting adults and they are missing a huge block of people that are important to the future of FEMA, ADEM and other organizations," Rigsby said.
Arkansas has been recognized by FEMA as the first state to create a youth preparedness council to promote preparedness and encourage students to be leaders in their communities. The program will be used as a model nationwide.
Casey Williams worked with ADEM to create the council. She was just 13 years old when her hometown of Vilonia sustained significant damage from the first of two major tornadoes to hit the area in four years.
Williams represented Arkansas for two years on the Region VI Youth Preparedness Council. She helped develop an online study program from which students can receive a Youth Preparedness Certificate of Completion from ADEM. Council members will complete the program's five courses.
ADEM distributed information about the program to county emergency management offices, who relayed the information to school counselors. Catlett and Rigsby both said they learned about the council from their counselors.
"I like to make a difference in my community," Catlett said. "There's a sense of pride knowing that you are helping people around you, helping what's directly near you and you can actually affect what happens."
Rigsby said he was interested because he has learned about disaster relief from his own family members.
"I saw it was a way to start getting involved in a way that wasn't just hearing stories and actually participating," Rigsby said. "I jumped on it pretty quick."
Members have already taken part in two conference calls to learn more about ADEM and FEMA. Gary Regan, of ADEM, oversees the council. Catlett said the meeting at Camp Robinson helped students learn about the chain of command in emergency situations.
"It kind of eliminates a step one if something happens," Catlett said. "You already know what to do and how. There's a ladder of command of who needs to be involved. You already know that when something happens and it saves you some time."
The students will take part in another conference call soon to share ideas for outreach and learn from each other about how to best circulate the information.
"A majority of the programs FEMA and ADEM already have target elementary school students," Rigsby said. "So we are supposed to support those while creating a wider spectrum and involve high school students."
Rigsby said he remembers presentations by firefighters and other first responders when he was in elementary school. He said he appreciated the value of such programs.
"I always had fun with things like that and I don't want those programs to collapse on themselves," Rigsby said. "I want to personally support that because I enjoyed them and I feel like they impacted me."
Catlett said the council is not likely to overlap with his career interests. He said he is currently interested in becoming a perfusionist or joining the U.S. Air Force to become a parajumper.
Rigsby said he expects his career interests to evolve during his time at ASMSA, but he did not rule out interests in disaster training and emergency preparedness.
Local on 08/24/2016