News from VashonBePrepared
Noticias de VashonBePrepared

Next Week: World ShakeOut Day!

Our Partner Experts: The Food Bank

Help with Winter Shelter

Sign Up Now: School Vaccination Clinics

Next Week: World ShakeOut Day!

It’s Shakeout Day next Thursday, October 17th, at 10:17 am. That’s easy to remember, 10/17 at 10:17. It’s the largest earthquake drill in the world and you can add to the total by joining the crowd. Register to participate here: https://www.shakeout.org/register/

Drop! Cover! Hold on! That’s the main Shakeout activity. So, check out this illustrated web page guide for what to practice during the Shakeout: shakeout.org/dropcoverholdon

Feel free to make ShakeOut a solo activity. Better yet, gather work colleagues, your classroom, your exercise class, your family, or your neighbors. Doing your ShakeOut in a group makes a more powerful experience and helps you be more prepared for the day a major earthquake strikes our seismically active region.

A reminder: if you are on the shoreline, head for high ground after the initial shaking stops. In a real-world earthquake situation, there may be a fast-moving tsunami wave. So after you ShakeOut, take a walk and practice your tsunami high-ground mojo.

Our Partner Experts: The Food Bank
In any given week, 300 Vashon households rely on food provided by the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank. In a year, over 15% of island residents partake of the Food Bank’s free, all-comers, no-questions-asked nutrition. That’s why VashonBePrepared counts the Food Bank as a key partner for disaster preparedness.

Earlier this month, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) team made a field trip to the Food Bank, including a session on plans for the new, more efficient Food Bank facility that will open in town late next year. A Food Bank representative has an automatic seat on the VashonBePrepared board of directors, ready to act for our community in an emergency.

200 Tons of Food:

In a year of community service, Food Bank volunteers will lug 396,000 pounds (200 tons) of food per year from delivery trucks and over the threshold of the warehouse. About half of the food will be delivered to homes by volunteer drivers.

If an earthquake or other calamity severed Vashon’s fragile ferry link to the mainland, a top priority for VashonBePrepared would be supporting food distribution for the hundreds of Food Bank clients. Many would go hungry without the Food Bank. Then, when Food Bank clients have been served, and relief supplies start arriving, the Food Bank team stands ready to distribute food around the community. This concept worked well during the pandemic when Food Bank volunteers home-delivered thousands of bags of groceries. In short, if things are tough on Vashon, we know who to call. The Food Bank folks are partner experts!

Help Out with Winter Shelter
Every winter, some Vashonites in need sleep rough in icy, wet weather. Folks have suggested we open shelters in churches or schools. But the key word there is open. There are many potential shelter locations, but we need people to run the shelters and take care of clients who need help. You can volunteer to help out.

The Vashon Emergency Operations Center is putting out the call for Vashon volunteers to get some shelter training to be ready to help in the event of bad weather or a natural disaster such as an earthquake. We’re building a list of candidates for this training so classes can be arranged. Would you like to help out? Contact Kim Nelson at werestoreit@comcast.net or text (206) 604-9666.

Sign Up Now: School Vaccination Clinics
You only have a few more days to get your kids signed up for COVID and flu vaccinations at school. These school-based clinics are open to all school-age students on Vashon. Here’s the signup link: tinyurl.com/vashonschoolvax

The deadline to sign up is by noon the day before each clinic:
Ages 12+ will be vaccinated on Tuesday, October 15th, 7:30am to 10:00am at the Vashon High School gym. The deadline for signing up is Monday October 14th at noon.
Ages 5+ will be vaccinated on Thursday, October 17th, 7:30am to 10:00am at the McMurray Middle School gym. The deadline for signing up is Wednesday October 16th at noon.