NORTH LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Division of Emergency Management is proud to announce the Regional and State winners of the 2020 Individual and Community Preparedness Awards. These awards serve to recognize a local group or individual that has shown outstanding community preparedness efforts. Individuals or groups are nominated by their local Office of Emergency Management Coordinators and forwarded to an ADEM area coordinator for regional review. Each region can select a regional winner and that selectee is forwarded to ADEM to determine the overall state winner. Categories of submission include Whole Community Preparedness and Youth Community Preparedness.
This year regional winners were selected from the Central and Northwest regions. They are:
Central Area: Cabot High School Emergency Preparedness Class
Northwest Area: ATU Emergency Preparedness Department Youth Preparedness Camp (Whole Community Award)
Northwest Area: Sebastian County Youth Preparedness Council (Youth Community Award)
The 2020 Arkansas Individual and Community Preparedness Award winner is the Cabot High School Emergency Preparedness Class. Students in the class were challenged to identify awareness and training deficiencies related to the school’s cardiac arrest event emergency action plan. The students determined that the size of the CHS campus, 40 acres, was too large for the school’s three Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to efficiently be used in response to a cardiac arrest event. Through the student’s initiative, the school received a grant that allowed another AED to be placed on campus. This action reduced the probable response time to a cardiac event from almost three minutes to less than 10 seconds.
Individuals and groups of all ages are encouraged to increase preparedness in their communities. Contact your local office of emergency management if you or your group would like to share your preparedness efforts!
