APHA is ready for National Preparedness Month!

APHA’s Get Ready emergency preparedness campaign has lots to do and see this September.

Come see us!
Get Ready Day Google+ Hangout on Air
Sept. 15, 2 p.m. EDT
We are featuring an exceptional panel of experts who will speak about climate change and specifically about wildfires, flooding and vector-borne diseases.  Learn how you can prepare and reduce the risk of harm.

City Center Farmer’s Market
Sept. 15, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Come actually see us in person in Washington, D.C., at the City Center farmers market. Say hello and be sure to pick up some of our fantastic freebies!

Climate Changes Health Webinar
Sept. 16, 1 p.m. EDT
Get information about the CDC’s BRACE (Building Resilience Against Climate Effects) framework and hear about Oregon and Vermont communities that are taking steps to prevent the health threats related to climate change.

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New Get Ready Infographic
Help prepare your family or community for disasters with our free Get Ready preparedness infographics. Easy to print, post and share!

New Fact Sheet — Get the facts on seasonal flu
By knowing the steps to avoid getting sick, we can have a safer flu season — and you and your family can stay healthy.

Coming Soon…Get Ready video
Ready, Pet, Go! Calendar winners announced
Preparedness quiz
New podcast and preparedness Storify

APHA announces the winners of its Get Ready Tips from Tots Photo Contest! And the winners are…

One of our Tips from Tots Photo Contest winners.

Thanks to everyone who entered APHA’s Get Ready Tips from Tots Photo Contest. We received so many adorable photos of prepared babies that judging was difficult. They are all such cuties!

In the end, we were able to narrow it down to 16 winners that had that special something — and they’re now sharing preparedness advice in our new 2015 calendar. In celebration of Get Ready Day today, the calendar is available for free on the Get Ready website.

From keeping cool in a heat wave to staying safe in a snow storm, these charming tots make learning about preparedness fun. And they’ll look completely adorbs on your fridge, bulletin board or office wall!

The 2015 Tips from Tots calendar can be downloaded and printed. Or pick up a printed copy at APHA's 142nd Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans in November. We'll be passing out copies of the calendar at booth 847 at the expo!

The Tips from Tots contest comes on the heels of the Get Ready campaign’s successful 2013 and 2014 photo contests, which used cats and dogs to share preparedness advice. If you liked those calendars, look out — these tots are even cuter!

Check out the winning photos in our baby photo gallery and share them with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter.

And while you’re there, browse some of our favorite runners-up photos.

Which photo do you think the judges should have included in the calendar? Vote for your favorite!

 

Celebrate APHA’s Get Ready Day and spread the preparedness message on Sept. 16

How prepared are you for an emergency or disaster? Have you developed a disaster plan for your family? Do you know how to protect yourself from measles, the flu or other infectious diseases? Most Americans are not prepared for public health emergencies or disasters.

APHA’s Get Ready Day is raising awareness about community preparedness. Held each year in conjunction with National Preparedness Month, the event will be observed Tuesday, Sept. 16. No matter where you live, there is always a possibility of a public health emergency, from earthquakes and hurricanes to infectious diseases.

So what can you do? First, assess how prepared you and your family are: Do you have an emergency plan? A three-day supply of food and water? Where would your family meet during a disaster if they could not go home? How would you leave town if you had to evacuate? Check out these planning tips and information on emergency stockpiling for help in getting yourself and your family prepared.

Once you are up to date, bring the preparedness message to your community on Get Ready Day. Here are a few ideas:

• Sponsor a preparedness talk at your local senior center or hold a community meeting. Invite someone from your local health department or the American Red Cross to be a speaker.
• Insert preparedness planning materials into your church or religious organization’s bulletin, and post information at your library.
• Work with a local grocery store to promote preparedness and stockpiling to shoppers through displays or fliers. Pass out lists of what people should have to be prepared.

Thanks to your help this Get Ready Day, we’ll all be better prepared!

APHA, communities nationwide get ready for emergencies

APHA invited neighboring offices in Washington, D.C., and communities around the country today to celebrate Get Ready Day and the importance of emergency preparedness. Through fact sheets, food and fun, communities were reminded to get ready — at APHA headquarters and beyond.

Throughout the day, more than 150 visitors from nearby offices and the surrounding community received resources and played games at APHA’s mini information fair, while the American Red Cross administered a second annual blood drive where APHA reached a goal of collecting 20 pints of blood.

Continue reading this story on APHA’s Public Health Newswire to learn what other communities did on Get Ready Day.



Get Ready Day is tomorrow!

Do you know what you’re doing for Get Ready Day this year?

Held each year on the third Tuesday in September, APHA's Get Ready Day is timed to coincide with National Preparedness Month. This year’s observance is Sept. 17.

Whether you’re on a campus, at home, at school or anywhere else, there are many ways to be part of Get Ready Day. Here are a few ideas:

• Share information: The Get Ready campaign offers free fact sheets, including emergency preparedness information on hurricanes, heat waves, vaccines and many other topics. Use Get Ready Day as a time to learn and share with others about how to be prepared for any emergency.
• Take the pledge: Show that you care about your community by signing the Get Ready preparedness pledge. The pledge is a promise to friends, family and community members to help make them better prepared.
• Create a plan: What better time to create a plan for emergencies than Get Ready Day? Work with your family, friends and coworkers to find the best way to be prepared for emergencies.
• Jump into action: Find ways to make your community better prepared: Set up a booth on campus to share materials. Host an after-school community preparedness fair. Work with a local grocery store to promote preparedness and stockpiling to shoppers through displays or fliers. Sponsor a preparedness talk at your local senior center or hold a town hall.

Here at APHA headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Get Ready campaign will be hosting a blood drive, information table and community food drive. So what are you doing?

Get Ready Day 2012 a success

Sept. 18 was the sixth annual observance of APHA’s Get Ready Day. Held during National Preparedness Month, Get Ready Day helps Americans raise awareness in their communities about emergency preparedness. Organizations and advocates around the country helped promote this year’s observance.

Here at APHA, the Get Ready team held two community outreach events in Washington, D.C.: a grocery store event and a blood drive with the American Red Cross.

For our first event, we worked with a local grocery store to plan an event where we could talk to shoppers about building an emergency stockpile and answer questions about emergency preparedness. We set up a booth at the front of the store and talked to shoppers about stocking up on water and canned goods, preparing for bad weather and talking to children about emergencies. Our team spoke with hundreds of shoppers, handed out more than 200 copies of our free fact sheets, and gave away other goodies, like a T-shirt and an emergency preparedness backpack from the American Red Cross. By all accounts, it was a success.

APHA staff share preparedness tips with Safeway shoppers

The Get Ready team also organized a blood drive with the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross holds blood drives year-round, but keeping a good supply of blood becomes really important when a natural disaster strikes. The blood drive was a great way for APHA staff and community members to help others and make a personal contribution.

APHA's Executive Director is all smiles after donating blood

Best of all, both events were relatively easy to set up, and fun to participate in. If you’re already thinking about what you can do for next year’s Get Ready Day — Sept. 17, 2013! — that’s great. We have an event guide to help you plan, and as always, lots of free fact sheets for you to share.

My Get Ready Story: Knowing the importance of preparing for hurricanes

As a part of National Preparedness Month, APHA’s Get Ready campaign asked people to share their preparedness stories with us. Our first story is from Carol L., of Satellite Beach, Fla. Carol tells us how her family gets ready for hurricanes:

Image: Hurricane Andrew making landfall
on the Florida coast,
August 24, 1992 - Courtesy
NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) Collection

“Every year on the Atlantic Coast of Florida, residents prepare ahead for the hurricane season. A few years ago, a hurricane did major damage that knocked out power for a week.

Luckily, we had volunteers who helped us through the days. Different banks and insurance companies delivered bags of ice to those who needed it. EMTs and National Guard members checked to make sure everyone was healthy. Those who had battery-operated saws volunteered to clear the roads. Residents pitched in to help their neighbors.

Now, we have a list that we post in our laundry room of all the supplies we need to purchase before the season starts. All emergency gadgets are tested to make sure they are in working condition. We have purchased a butane stove. We do not purchase a large amount of food for the freezer. Instead, we leave room to store ice that will keep things cool for a while. We have a good supply of our prescriptions. We also have a plan for evacuation in case we are told to leave the barrier island. Our cars' gas tanks are kept full. The county has assigned buildings that we can use for a few days. Some of the buildings accept pets; others are for those medically impaired. We are ready but we are very happy when the storm passes out to sea.”

How do you get ready for emergencies? Share your story in the comments or send us an email!

September is National Preparedness Month

September is a big month for us here at Get Ready, because it’s also National Preparedness Month — the time of year where we work really hard to spread the word about getting yourself, your family and your community ready for disasters.

We have lots of great things in store for you this month. Our big day is Tuesday, Sept. 18 — Get Ready Day. Get Ready Day was created in 2007 to help people join together to help make their homes, communities, schools and workplaces more prepared. We have a section on our website dedicated to Get Ready Day, with information and tools to help you hold your own Get Ready Day event and event ideas. Check it out and let us know how you are planning to celebrate!

The fun doesn’t stop there. All throughout the month on this blog and our Twitter account,  we’ll be sharing information to help you prepare for anything. Stay tuned for blog posts about back-to-school preparedness and other features.

Plus, we’ve even started a cool new contest so that you can get your cats in on the emergency preparedness fun! (Yes, we said cats.)

Check back for more tips, tricks and useful information. And remember to sign up for our Get Ready Now! quarterly newsletter so you don’t miss a thing!

APHA congratulates winners of Get Ready Day event contest

Last month, APHA announced the winners of its Get Ready Day event contest for school-based health centers. APHA, in partnership with the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care asked school-based health centers to hold an event during National Preparedness Month, which takes place every September.

Participants were encouraged to be creative when planning events that would raise awareness about preparedness in their schools and communities. Three school-based health centers were selected to win cash prizes for their events. The winners are:

First place: North Shore-Long Island Jewish Student Health Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where students created posters raising awareness about the flu and held a hand-washing dance party (to the tune of “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO!).


Second place: The Metro Community Provider Network’s school-based clinic at Stein Elementary in Lakewood, Colo., which held a scavenger hunt and then used the items to teach students how to create an emergency stockpile.

Third place: Youth Empowered Solutions in Raleigh, N.C., where students held a Get Ready “tweet-a-thon” using Twitter to raise awareness about the importance of getting a flu shot.

Congratulations to the winners, and to everyone that held Get Ready Day events. And don’t forget to mark your calendar for our next Get Ready Day, which will take place Sept. 18, 2012!

Photos courtesy North Shore-Long Island Jewish Student Health Center; Metro Community Provider Network clinic at Stein Elementary School; Youth Empowered Solutions.