The simple ways to protect yourself, your family, and the community from a possible pandemic are the issues the pandemic postcards are intended to do for the city of Kenosha. Reaching those through images and simple steps in the postcard format should promote a health concious community. Handwashing and ways to properly cough when around others are the key problems we focused on. The postcards are meant to be visually appealing as to draw in the reader before giving them the information. The postcards can be sent out to at risk areas and placed in certain high risk areas. They are in and easy to read format and will be distributed in both english and spanish to accomodate the city of Kenosha.

Students at Harborside Academy, a charter school in Kenosha, will be working to plan and create the postcards. From all of the designs the Center for Disease Control of Kenosha will choose one or two of the designs to be distributed. After learning about viruses and studying past pandemics the students felt compelled to take what they learned in class and deliver that information to the city of Kenosha. They wanted to make sure that the Kenosha community felt prepared for the possibility of a pandemic. With the recent outbreak of the H1N1 virus, teaching the community how to be prepared and stay healthy with a few simple tips, and in a catchy format, was a group concensus. The target areas and ages were discussed by the students so as to have the postcards make the most impact. They also wanted to make sure that the postcards would be printed in both english and spanish to reach even a greater amount of the community.

The ninth grade biology students at Harborside Academy first planned for their postcards by doing research on the website pandemicflu.gov.Using this information along with information from some speakers, articles, and class discussions generated a planning web of ideas of what their focus group (individual, school, or community) should be aware of in terms of preparedness. The students then drafted a copy of what they wanted their postcards to look like. Next the students spent two days in the computer lab creating their final product. Students were encouraged to use text, color, and graphics in order to appeal to the viewer. Once everyone created their postcard, the class voted on the top five postcards for each class and also had each class develop a list of possible places to put the postcards in the community. The postcards chosen during the class vote are the ones that are going to be shown to the CDC representative and one or two will be chosen to be reproduced and distributed in Kenosha. The next steps in this project are to edit the postcards that were chosen to make sure they are polished and ready to be duplicated. Once the postcards are copied, they need to be distributed to the community. The students have created a display that was up in the Kenosha Civil War Museum about the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic. Included in this display, the students provided some information about preparing for a possible pandemic now and who will be most affected.

Others can help by doing similar things in their communities. Postcards are an easy way to reach a large part of the community and they can be as simple or as detailed as need be. Working with the CDC near you can insure that the right information is being conveyed. The more you know in prevention the less likely the H1N1 has of spreading as quickly and intense.