Emergency Kit Winners

At home or at work, routines can be disrupted with little or no warning by natural disasters, fires or other catastrophic events. Don’t wait for an emergency to think about being prepared.

National Preparedness Month, sponsored each September by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Ready Campaign is designed to increase public awareness of emergency preparedness. The campaign urges four basic steps:

To highlight National Preparedness Month, the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health is getting involved.

Residents noticed that we set up emergency preparedness displays at many area grocery stores for the month of September. The focus of each display was to educate residents about the importance of preparing today for an emergency that could happen tomorrow.

Each display included specific ideas and suggestions on how people could begin making their home emergency kit. It can be very simple and very basic. Residents are encouraged to start small and purchase one or two items each week when they shop at the grocery store. It's easy to start with bottled water, non-perishable foods and other items that will last for a few months.

Public Health had displays at these Cerro Gordo County grocery stores:

At each of the grocery store displays, residents were invited to take a helpful tool kit, which included important information, fact sheets, check lists and other documents. It also included fact sheets about H1N1 novel influenza, also known as swine flu.

Many of the grocery stores also agreed to give away one home emergency kit prize. Each participating store will have a grocery cart next to the display, which includes various items suggested for a home emergency kit, such as bottled water, non-perishable foods, etc.

To enter the drawing for that prize, residents were asked to fill out a brief survey on the display table, which asked about their level of preparedness. One drawing took place at each of the participating stores.

Lucille McKigney receives her kit from Rick Laudner at Dugan's Supermarket in Rockwell.	Joyce Craig receives her kit from Darrin Miculinich at Fareway in Mason City.
Helen Karamitros receives her prize from Ryan Evers at HyVee East, Mason City.	Penny Gourley receives her kit supplies from Tim Flaherty at Hy Vee West.
	Lindsay Masterhan recives her kit supplies from Terri Hackett at Wal Mart Super Center.
This kit at Fareway in Clear Lake went to Capri Riemen (winner photo unavilable)