Youth Preparedness is Important
Why is Youth Preparedness important? What does being prepared have to do with kids? Why should I be prepared? These are all great questions that I hope to answer in this post.
I am a teenager living in Washington State. As an Amateur Radio Operator and an Eagle Scout, it’s my duty to be prepared. In fact, the Boy Scout motto is ‘Be Prepared’, so why not be? I have also completed the Safe Sitter course sponsored by the local fire department to become a better babysitter.
Yes, Youth Can Learn How to “Be Prepared” for Emergencies!
Being prepared can be hard and takes some effort. I believe it is always worth it in the end. Many organizations offer a variety of courses in preparedness topics such as First Aid and CPR, C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team), and food storage. Some of the courses and workshops are available for youth, not just the adults! C.E.R.T. training is available for youth and adults. C.E.R.T. teams are formed with adults and there are youth teams, too.
Youth Preparedness Helps Me in My Family
My family recently bought a duel-fuel generator which can be used to power certain appliances and other items in our home in the likely (especially in the Puget Sound area) and sadly unfortunate event there is a power outage. We have bug out bags for all members of our family. We have even purchased a bath liner for each of the bath tubs. In an emergency event, like a volcanic eruption, we would put the bath liner into the tub and fill it up with water as soon as we could from the faucet. This would give us <insert> number of gallons of water to use (after purifying for eating or bathing purposes) before our water supply becomes contaminated.
A big concern for us is ash fall contaminating our water supply from any one of the five volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest. This area is also prone to earthquakes and floods, the latter being more common.
Natural Disasters Affect Youth Worldwide
In many places of the world, however, there are other things that can happen besides or in addition to a power outage, i.e. droughts, famine, tornadoes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Clean water and food storage are the most important items to already have stored and ready to use when needed.
As a youth, I help with organizing my family’s food and water storage. I let my parents know what we need to stock up on and what is at goal level for our pantry. Knowing what we have (and where it is stored) helps me be a part of my family’s emergency response plan.
Thousands of children suffer from disasters every year. So preparing for them – and with them – is extremely important. Admittedly it is sometimes tough to enlist the teenagers and toddlers in helping count food, stack cans, or prep food for canning.
Little Children Can Help the Family Become Better Prepared
Sure you may need to stock up on diapers often or buy new clothes every three months (for babies and those teenage boys), but it helps to have an extra set of hands (if they are old enough to help) to assist you in the aftermath of a disaster. Have your child (assuming he or she is old enough) help with storage, buying food, and extra clothes. Have a bug out bag for each child and adult in your home (as age and ability allows). Remember to store a bigger one for all of you in each vehicle.
Dare to Prepare Now!
I feel that youth everywhere have a need for Youth Preparedness so they are ready for themselves and their families for what may come in the future. So they are better prepared when bad things happen. When the world around them (as they know it) collapses they will wish they had been better prepared.
Dare to prepare now! Be rewarded when disaster strikes by knowing that you were prepared for it before it even happened.
-The Gluten Free Eagle
Thank you Kelly!
This is an excellent blog post. It is well written with excellent information for youth and adults. I’d like to see how we can use your expertise to help our congregation become better prepared. Please think about it. You have great ideas. Maybe we can link to your blog, or have you give us some tips on setting up a blog. It’s great to see your family’s example of some things we can do to prepare. Much appreciated!
Jim, thanks for the comment! For now, The Gluten Free Eagle is writing here on Gluten Free Preppers with me. His second post will be live tomorrow. Glad you enjoyed his post! 😀 ~Adrienne
I found this to be very interesting. I did not know anything about bath tub liners. It is brilliant to think of what has been developed to try and help folks in case of an emergency and appreciate the sharing of this information.
Elise, we saw the bath tub liners on a prepper show a couple years back. We purchased two for us (we have two bath tubs) and then gave them as Christmas gifts to our siblings and parents. (It’s a non-clutter gift, keeps in the box until you use it, and helps you store water when you really need it.) I agree the ideas coming out in new products to help us be better prepared is brilliant. Thank you for visiting! ~Adrienne
I have since purchased these. Here in California we need to be prepared for earthquakes.
Elise, awesome you purchased the bathtub liners! Water is SO important in an emergency and when a disaster – like an earthquake – strikes, water sources are not always going to be clean or able to provide water to everyone. Hope you will not ever have to use yours! ~Adrienne
This was fun to revisit so I can also look at what we have done.
Elise, it’s always great to check on progress. Thanks for visiting. ~Adrienne
Scouts is such a great way for kids to learn preparedness! Thanks so much for sharing your ideas with us at The Blogger’s Pit Stop!
Roseann, I agree that Scouts is great for teaching today’s youth about preparedness! My oldest is now an Eagle Scout. The second oldest is a Boy Scout and the youngest two are Cub Scouts. We’re a Scouting family. Thank you for stopping by! ~Adrienne