Houston, We Have A Problem

As a federal requirement, all schools must have mandatory, scheduled fire drills on a regular basis to prepare the children for an emergency. But what about you? Do you have an emergency plan for your own home? Have you thought about how you would ensure that everyone gets out of your home safely in the event of a fire? Do you have a designated place to go in the event of a tornado or earthquake? Sadly, most of us do not think these things through very thoroughly until it's too late.

At our next meeting, Firefighter Luke Graham will come to share with us some important tips about fire safety, creating a fire plan for your homes, and how to educate your children about what to do in the event of a fire. He will also come in full uniform and meet with our children to familiarize them with what a firefighter would look like in a real fire situation. With young children, seeing someone dressed up in a mask and fire suit might scare them terribly and cause them to run away from the firefighter in an emergency situation instead of going with them to safety. So, by familiarizing the children with what the uniform looks like in a non-threatening, non-emergency situation, if they ever are faced with a real fire situation, they will know what to expect and will be prepared.

Also, we have many service projects available for this next meeting for any who want to participate in them.

1. Goodies for our firefighters - If you would like to make some sort of treat to send back to our firefighters, please feel free to do so and bring them to our meeting on Monday. We will be dividing them up to send back with Firefighter Luke Graham of the Fort Knox Fire Department and with Firefighter Marco Scarborough of the E-Town Fire Department.
2. Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes - For those of you wanting to participate in filling shoe boxes for children less fortunate, these boxes are due at our meeting this Monday. Dollar Tree carries a lot of the stuff that you would want to fill them with (including the clear plastic shoe boxes themselves), so you can put them together fairly inexpensively. To print out your labels for your boxes or to find out more information about what to fill them with, go to http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Pack_A_Shoe_Box/
3. Stuffed animals for Clarity...Solutions For Women - For those of you competing in our contest to collect items for the bundles that we are making for Clarity...Solutions For Women (formerly the Heartland Crisis Pregnancy Center), this meeting we are bringing new or gently used small stuffed animals. Remember, the care group who brings the most stuff for the bundles will receive a $5 gift card for each member of your group to Pestos Restaurant in Cool Springs.

Also, please remember to be saving your frozen juice lids to bring to our November 23rd meeting for a craft project that we will be doing.

In addition, for those of you looking for some fun events coming up in our community, check out the following links. http://ehcheritagecouncil.org/upcomingevents.asp.htm and http://thepac.net/

So come join us on November 9th from 9:00am - 11:00am in the Family Life Center of First Christian Church for food, fun, and fellowship as we prepare our homes to be emergency ready. Breakfast is being provided to us by the Fire care group. Hope to see you then!