Thank you! April 17 marks the beginning of National Volunteer Appreciation Week. The entire LWR CERT Board of Directors would like to extend a warm “Thank You” to all our CERT members. Over the past year, more than 100 LWR CERT members have volunteered hundreds of hours of service to our community – even during a pandemic. Our CERT members are an amazing group of volunteers.

Our first Basic Training course began March 30 with an engaging group of LWR residents attending. Your next opportunity to attend Basic Training begins June 16. It will be the last opportunity to get trained as a CERT member before the 2022 hurricane season. I encourage you to consider joining your neighbors to make your street and your neighborhood more resilient. You can learn more at www.lwrcert.org/join.

President, LWR CERT

Bleeding injuries can happen anywhere -- an auto accident or even a trip and fall in your home. The number one cause of preventable death after injury is bleeding.

Attend the April Member Meeting featuring a special Stop The Bleed presentation and you'll learn the 3 quick actions you can take to save a life. This session will re-enforce the skills you learned in Basic Training including how to recognize life-threatening bleeding, apply pressure, pack a wound, and correctly apply a tourniquet.

Stop The Bleed is designed as an in-person training session. All who attend at Town Hall and complete the hands-on portion will receive a Stop the Bleed certificate from the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.

Click the link below to register up to 4 people or ask your neighbors to visit www.lwrcert.org/events for more info to register on their own.

Lakewood Ranch dog and cat owners attended a free public education session on Pet Emergency First Aid, sponsored by LWR CERT, on Saturday, March 12 at Town Hall. The presentation by Dr. Terry Clekis, former owner and medical director of Braden River Animal Hospital and current F.E.M.A. Disaster Preparedness Committee Chair was loaded with potentially lifesaving information for pet parents.

PREPARE BEFORE AN EMERGENCY HAPPENS: Dr. Clekis stressed the importance of being prepared for an emergency before it happens by organizing pet information and emergency contacts, obtaining a pet first aid kit (readily available online), and having a few items on hand:

Dr. Clekis also discussed how to treat shock, cuts and bleeding, burns, choking, seizures, snake bites, and eye injuries. Heat stroke is a preventable injury that should be treated by bringing the animal's body temperature back to normal slowly using cool wet towels, not ice packs.

Dr. Clekis stressed first aid does not replace professional veterinary care and, after an incident, pet owners should seek immediate veterinary care or advice. We thank Dr. Clekis for sharing his veterinary experience with the LWR community. We also thank Bruce and Dana Bedford and DOG Perfect Lakewood Ranch for donations to our door prizes.

Manatee County Emergency Management Chief Steve Litschauer provided unique behind-the-scenes tours of the Manatee County Emergency Operations Center for LWR CERT members and their guests March 14 and 15. A group of members enjoyed visiting and getting to know each other during a pre-tour lunch at Speaks Clam Bar.

During activations, Chief Litschauer serves as the Incident Commander for Manatee County, coordinating responses from dozens of different agencies and organizations responsible for areas such as fire, medical, military, law enforcement, planning, transportation, utilities, energy and animal services -- who all come together in the EOC to coordinate the County's response to a disaster or event.

Similar to LWR CERT's 6 Readiness Conditions, the EOC has three Activation Levels

Tour participants were briefed on the operations and organization of the EOC and gained a better understanding of how the actions of activating LWR CERT members are integrated into ta county-wide disaster response. The tour attracted the attention of The East County Observer. Click to read The Observer's news article about the tours.

We thank Chief Litschauer and his team for their time in making this special opportunity available for our members.

The behind-the-scenes tour of the EOC was a 2022 Active Responder qualifying event. Thanks to Dave Cashbaugh for providing photos from the March 15 evening tour.

Encourage your neighbors to visit www.lwrcert.org/join for details. Be sure to ask them to include your name as their referral.

Diane Anderson

Sharon Defferding

George Jenckes

Mike Resetarits

Gerald Toner

Douglas Webber

Hilary Harter

Cynthia Olcott

Sheila White

Happy April birthday to members Mary Benfer, Dave Cashbaugh, Mike Defferding, Bud Goetzinger, Hilary Harter, Sebastian Ilka, Phil Johnson, Lahin Khan, Sam Mallis, Chris Marshall, Jack Mathews, Rick Ortiz, Greg Stratakes, Bob Thompson, and Tony Vertuca.

Touch-A-Truck - Thanks to Rich Raymond and Jerry Toner for assisting with parking at the Rocky Bluff Branch Library Touch-a-Truck event March 19. We appreciate you stepping up to help when a county agency asked for assistance and thank you for the hours you volunteered for the event.

ALERT MANATEE - Click here to sign up to receive notifications from Manatee County including evacuation notices, boil water advisories, weather warnings and hazardous traffic or road conditions.

Manatee County Emergency Management Chief Steve Litschauer introduced our members to this information-packed website during our recent EOC tours. In addition to seeing real-time traffic at most major intersections in the area, you can also view traffic events including construction updates, incidents, and weather. There's so much info, they've even created an introductory video to show you all the features.