Application Deadline Extended to June 1

Are Our Kids Ready for Be Ready Camp?

Click here for a downloadable brochure about the camp. Click here for an application. Click here to view the Alabama Department of Education's letter of endorsement of Be Ready Camp.

This year will mark the third annual Be Ready Camp, a joint initiative by the Governor's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the Alabama Department of Homeland Security to train Alabama's sixth graders to be better prepared for a wide array of emergency events.

This week-long residential camp is held in September at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and has received national attention for its unique training protocols. It is recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as the national model, and Alabama is the only state with a camp of this quality.

Be Ready Camp is TRAINING our future professional first responders now and preparing the next generation of public servants. Our job is to make sure the camp slots are filled!

Prospective campers have until June 1 to apply for the camp. Time is running out for the selection process! ACCA strongly encourages that each county participates in this most important program as the tuition to the camp is free for the camper. The only expense for the camper is travel to and from Huntsville. If your office has not yet received application materials for your county, please contact Sydney Hoffman, director of the Governor's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, at 877-273-5018 or send an e-mail to sydney.hoffman@servealabama.gov.

Why should the County Commissions get involved with Be Ready Camp?
Because the students must apply to the program, that proves these fifth graders show not only initiative, but an active curiosity in the field of emergency preparedness and public service. The application process is just that...a process. Students are competing against other students in their schools for the opportunity of a lifetime to spend a week at Alabama’s U.S. Space and Rocket Center doing and experiencing things they’ve only seen on television or in the movies.

Once at the camp, the students log classroom time, called “briefings,” to learn the basic skills for emergency preparedness, including first aid training, fire safety, CPR certification, creating a family disaster plan and kit, triaging victims, and disaster psychology. Then, the classroom moves outside, and the students work with professional first responders and administrators at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center for hands-on training culminating in a mock disaster on the last day of the camp.

The mock disaster is the ultimate educational experience for Be Ready Campers in which all the knowledge and training learned throughout the week is put to the test. Campers work side by side with their professional first responders to work a simulated plane crash. Working in teams, the campers set up a command center, prioritize victims, administer first aid to victims that are dressed and made up to look like crash victims (complete with fake blood and makeup), organize a water rescue, and work the disaster much like the professionals would if the situation were real.

The lessons the campers learn during Be Ready Camp translate to life lessons quite easily. The character-building exercises teach the students to work together and to rely on each other in different projects. And, because they spend so much time with professional first responders, the students have the opportunity to talk about what THE JOB is really like and how different it is from what they see on television and in the movies. The excitement the students experience from taking part in the mock disaster allows the students the opportunity to better understand what public service can be. And, we know that because these students applied for the program...they want to be at the camp, so there is a desire and drive somewhere in those students to serve their communities. It’s up to us to help foster that desire and drive.

A program that teaches young students responsibility, as well as the importance of public service, is indeed a worthwhile program.

Students must apply to Be Ready Camp.
To be accepted into the Be Ready Camp program and attend one of the three camps at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in September, students who are currently in the fifth grade must apply to the program. In order to become a Youth Preparedness Delegate, students must complete an application clearly answering the question of this year’s theme: “What Does Being Part of a Safe Community Mean to Me?” Applications must include ONE of the following:

1.) A 300- to 500-word essay in which good spelling, grammar, punctuation and paragraph structure apply. The essay is preferred to be typed, but good penmanship in blue or black ink will be accepted.

2.) A poster, no larger than 11"x17", that embodies a clarity of the topic; good use of imagination, color and design; and good spelling, grammar and punctuation apply.

3.) A 30- to 60-second video in either VHS, CD or DVD format that’s understandable, intelligible, appropriate, imaginative, interesting and creative will be accepted.

For more information about application procedures, log on to www.bereadycamp.org.
All applications must be received by May 1, 2008, to:
Be Ready Camp
One Commerce Street, Suite 620
Montgomery, Ala. 36104

Tuition for campers is supplied through corporate donations.
Through the donations of corporate sponsors, Youth Preparedness Delegates and their parents experience no out-of-pocket expenses other than those related to
traveling to Huntsville and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. The professional first responders who help train the campers, such as police officers, firefighters, doctors, emergency management personnel, paramedics and other volunteers give of their time to help train the campers in fun and inventive ways.

For more information, please contact Lori M. Quiller, ACCA director of public relations, at (334) 263-7594 or lquiller@acca-online.org.