Project Updates

09/14/2009

We set up our display at the Aroostook County Fair for a week in the 4-H exhibit area. They estimated 1000+ people a day attended the fair so we think at least another 1000 people got the information by stopping by. We had our handouts (what is left of them), information from the Red Cross and FEMA. We won a ribbon but that wasn't the important part of the display.

Then, we were asked to put up our display at the Balloon Festival Street Fair at the end of August. It poured rain but many people stopped and talked to us about our project. We could have sold the Red Cross Emergency kits if we had had any but at least people saw them.

Now we are working on two projects. Our first one is a taping of a cable TV show. It will be taped in four segments so we can explain our project in detail to thousands of Time Warner viewers across the state. Second, the Red Cross asked us to be part of their display during the Lowe's Family Safety Day coming up in October. After the rain at the Balloon Festival, we have to redo our poster but that's not a problem.

Our 4-H leader attended a tabletop exercise with the Aroostook County Emergency Management people and she gave them one of our brochures. They were VERY impressed and are grateful for everything we've been doing.

Our goal is to become more involved in the emergency preparedness of our community and the Red Cross. It looks like that's going to happen soon.

06/29/2009

We created a poster using our community maps to show where the Red Cross shelter was. Since there is only one in Presque Isle, we included another map showing where potential shelters will be if needed. Then we added a map of the nearest community in case we had to evacuate the city. Another map showed where the National Guard could set up a staging area with room for a helicopter. This location also includes a hand pump so water will be available if the water plant is affected. We also started to work on the Aroostook River which, if flooded, will cut off the entire top 65 miles of the state. Mark Matson, a GIS specialist from the University of Maine, helped us make our maps look good.

From this information, we created a brochure that included these maps plus information about what to expect at a shelter and what you need to take with you. We had 250 printed on heavy paper and in color.

Our survey was designed, typed and copied and we worked on a way to get the results back.

We also put together a display on what should go into a "GO" bag if people had to leave to go to a shelter.

All of this material went to the Agri-Business Trade Fair held in Presque Isle in April. We set up the display and manned the booth Friday - Sunday. Our survey resulted in 157 useable surveys. We gave away 4 door prizes if they completed the survey and the drawing was held each day.

Presently, we have about 15 brochures left so a lot of people took them. Of course, we've been passing them around both before and after the Trade Fair.

Now we are getting ready for our County Fair in August. We'll have to print more brochures and work on the survey a little bit. The display will need refreshing also.

Someone saw our maps and was very impressed. They asked us to enter our state GIS championship. We won the Aroostook County regional competition so we were invited to participate in the state championship June 13. We won second place. That was an entirely different audience than expected but the more people we can reach with our being prepared message, the better.

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