SEQUIM--Serve Washington selected the Clallam County Fire District 3's Community Emergency Response Team, CERT, as recipients of the 2024 Washington State Volunteer Service Awards for the Peninsula/Coastal Region of Washington.
The Clallam County Fire District 3's CERT received the group volunteer award.
CERTs are made up of community volunteers. They are trained to help people during disasters when professional first responders might not be immediately available. They are trained in first aid, light search and rescue, fire safety protocol and basic disaster response. They can help organizations distribute information, food and supplies as well as fulfil various other tasks during disasters. They also volunteer at local events that teach people to prepare for hazards that can happen in their communities.
When they are not deployed to an emergency incident or community event, CERT volunteers for Clallam County Fire District 3 meet for one hour per month to receive refresher training on various preparedness skills and topics.
Clallam County Fire District 3 has 523 CERT volunteers. They collectively logged more than 22,000 hours of service in 2023, according to Charles Meyer, a CERT division chief for Clallam County Fire District. He said one of the reasons CERTs give for volunteering is the satisfaction that comes from helping others.
"When you have that many people, it's a great contribution to the community," Meyer said. "One of the things that can give life meaning is the ability to be of service to the community, through some effort or task that is larger than themselves."
In 2023, CERT volunteers partnered with the Sequim Food Bank to distributed more than 1,600 family meal boxes to people experiencing food insecurity between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They helped facilitate memorial services for Clallam County Fire District 3 Capt. Charles "Chad" Cate, who passed away in January of 2023. A total of 165 CERT volunteers supported traffic control and parking, escorted of VIP guests, assisted with communications management and provided refreshments to attendees.
CCFD3: https://www.ccfd3.org/
