CERT graduates are ready to respond to emergencies
BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer

Dick Borys

JACKSON - The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) has 15 newly graduated volunteer members.

"CERT training promotes a partnering effort between emergency services and the people they serve," said Al Robbins, Jackson's CERT trainer. "The goal is to have emergency services personnel train new members in neighborhood community organizations and those people who spend the day at their work place in basic response skills."

In the event of a personal emergency, a disaster or any situation in between, the trained volunteers can use a variety of skills, Robbins said.

Robbins said the training takes place in eight sessions that run between two and three hours. Topics include disaster preparedness; fire safety; disaster medical operations (triage and treating life-threatening injuries); disaster medical operations; search and rescue; team organization; disaster psychology; terrorism and CERT; and a final hands-on exercise.

At the March 11 meeting of the Township Council,MayorMark Seda presented the CERT graduates with certificates recognizing their completion of the training, while coordinator Dick Borys and Robbins presented identification cards to each CERT volunteer.

"We've gotten a good number of volunteers from the senior communities, which fosters preparedness," Seda said. "People don't realize how much time it takes to volunteer and to put in the training hours … I certainly appreciate the fact that [the volunteers] actually stood up and decided to make a difference within their own community, as well as in the entire community."

Seda noted that the CERT volunteers serve all of Jackson, not just the adult communities.

"It certainly bodes well for the entire township to have a CERT team that is willing to put time in to receive the training and to have ongoing training," the mayor said. "I have a lot of respect for them because I know how much work it takes and how much time and effort they put into the training process."

Recent graduates who completed the CERT training are: Mary Ann Riso, Arlene Friedland, Steve Friedland, William McCuen, Riki Smookler, Howard Hochman, Judy Dubow, Dr. Daniel Greenfield, Vince Varell, Bill Mullis, Vicki Rickabaugh, Charles Chodash, Carole Goldstein, Robert Robinson and Larry Hartman.

Anyone who would like to receive information about CERT training may contact Jackson police Capt. Rick Ferrarelli at (732) 833-3006.