By By Alica P. Thiele
Challenger reporter

February 16. 2010 6:00AM



Each of the Girl Scouts who attended Friday's sleepover received a Be Prepared patch. Girls from Brandon, Valley Springs and Garretson participated. Photo by Alica P. Thiele


Area Girl Scouts learned about staying safe in emergencies during the evening of Feb. 5 with the help of Jell-O and bottles of water.

It was part of a sleepover at the Brandon Elementary gym that earned the girls a patch in emergency preparedness. Through demonstrations and talks by local emergency workers, the girls learned how to stay safe in the event of a flood, tornado or other disaster.

"This is a great opportunity to educate our young girls on emergency preparedness, very timely with what has happened in Haiti (earthquake) and all the power outages West River," said Shari Davis, who is on the Brandon public safety committee.

About 75 Girl Scouts from kindergarten through grade seven gathered at the gym for an evening of learning. To learn how germs are passed, one girl dipped her hand in gelatin powder and then shook hands with other girls on her team. Then, all the girls dipped their hands in a bucket of water and saw how the water changed color.

In another demonstration, a bottle was filled with water and taped to another bottle at the neck. The bottles were then shaken until the water swirled, then the bottles were set down with the empty one down. The "tornado" inside the first bottle gradually ran down into the second bottle.
Representatives from the Brandon Police Department, Brandon's Community Emergency Response Team program, MED-Star ambulance, Brandon Volunteer Fire Department and others talked to the girls about staying safe.

Ben Davis, a meteorologist, told the girls about weather and the difference between a weather watch and a weather warning. Firefighters showed the girls showed the girls the gear they wear to protect them during a fire, and they told the girls to stay low to the ground in a smoky room. They crawled among the girls on all fours while wearing their gear to show them how they would look if they were searching for people trapped in a smoky house.

Mike Vogel, assistant fire chief, told the girls to keep their rooms clean so they would be easier to find among the smoke.

Later in the evening, the girls had a pizza party and looked through literature they each got to take home. They received a disaster preparedness activity book published by the Federal Emergency Management Administration. It was through FEMA that Shari Davis and Mary Lou Lacey, who has a fourth-grader in Girl Scouts, came up with the idea of the sleepover.

Lacey said FEMA recently teamed up with the Girl Scouts nationally for safety education. When she received some literature in the mail, she approached Davis, who set up the sleepover.

"Part of CERT's mission is to educate and train people on emergency preparedness," Davis said. She is the president of Brandon's CERT program. "Everybody has to have a safety plan."
Lacey said each family should have a plan for their own home. Materials the girls received included a checklist they could fill out and copy for their family members. The checklist included emergency contact names and a designated meeting place in case family members get separated, for example. Having a plan and this information can help children feel more secure, Lacey said.

The handouts also give children a starting point for bringing up safety concerns to their parents, Davis said. "They can start a family dialogue," she said.

Fourth-grader Varonica Heinrichs said she learned a lot during the evening's activities. "When there's a storm, you should crouch down as far as you can," she said. Her twin sister, Valoree Heinrichs, said she has been at Girl Scout sleepovers at the school before and always enjoys them. She usually puts her sleeping bag in the center of the gym so she has a better view of the movie, she said.
The girls' mother, Tammy Heinrichs, runs an in-home daycare and said she has taught her charges how to dial 911 in an emergency. She appreciated Friday's safety sleepover. "It's interesting for them, for them not to be afraid but to know what to do," she said of the children. For adults, "it's always good to be refreshed," she said.

The girls each earned a Be Prepared patch for their participation.

www.shtfm.com/viewtopic.php?f=156&t=4906