For the Reporter
Division Chief John Madson, Kent Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and volunteers from the Kent Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program, Kymberly Behymer and Jennifer Keizer, and Communications Support Team (KCST) Jim Aigner and Michael Sealfon reinforced the recent National Night Out Program sponsored by the city of Kent Police and various neighborhood organizations.
The team traveled to three Kent East Hill neighborhoods to describe CERT and KCST programs to interested citizens and drew up to 30 participants at each location. The partially completed OEM/KCST mobile disaster communications van was initially displayed.
National Night Out, initiated by the National Association of Town-Watch, is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police, fire-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make neighborhoods safer, better places to live.
CERT is a national curriculum, developed post 9-11 that prepares citizens to respond and cope with the aftermath of disaster. The complete CERT training course, available through the Kent Office of Emergency Management is comprised of nine modules and takes approximately 20 hours to complete. The next session begins in September and meets one evening per week for eight weeks. Contact Kymberly Behymer at 206 856-4400 or kentoem@kentwa.gov for more information.
KCST meets at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month, at the Kent Police and Fire Training Center. Contact @ 206 856-4400 or kentoem@kentwa.gov. for more information.
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