Cert Program

CERT Leader Meeting March 1, 2023

02/01/23

CERT team leaders had their monthly meeting on Wednesday, March 1st at the North Fort Myers Fire Department, items discussed were:

· Refresher courses for CERT members were held March 2nd.

· CPR class for March 7h was cancelled.

· CERT picnic, for members only is Friday, March 10th at the fire house. RSVP to Kevin Walsh

· Hurricane season is coming up, we need to gather our teams together and review procedures, have instructional/refresher classes if need be. These need to be scheduled with Crissi.

Lake Fairways had their monthly meeting Monday night, March 6th. Items discussed were:

· Updating our CERT team members with phone numbers, emails and cul de sac assignments

· Whose responsibility is it to clean out the CERT room so we can get ready for hurricane preparedness. Currently, there are storm shutters in there.

· Signs for the windows in the event of a hurricane, i.e home or gone

· Having a CERT member available for new homeowners meeting

· Getting grant money for supplies needed

· Need volunteers for the Easter Service

· Fundraiser October 7th in the clubhouse, The Dazzling Delray’s, $20 a ticket. Tickets will be on sale as soon

· Requesting WINK News or other TV station come in and do a community hurricane preparedness.

CERT Leader Meeting February 1, 2023

02/01/23

CERT Leader Meeting February 1, 2023 at North Fort Myers Park and Recreation

The following minutes were from the CERT Leader meeting to be shared with CERT team members.

CERT Basic training will be held February 6-10th , 6 pm – 8:30 pm at the North Fort Myers Community Center. Lake Fairways needs more team members. Our CERT team basically helps out in the community, such as helping out with parking and traffic, when needed, checking on cul de sacs after a storm and other items. There are many good programs you will be able to attend if you are a CERT member. Please wear close toed shoes, bring a pen and notebook. Reach out to Kevin Walsh if interested.

Fire Wise Event at Heron’s Glen, a free event. Fire Wise is a free program that encourages partnerships among homeowners, to develop and implement local solutions for wildfire preparedness – before a fire starts. Plenty of vendors will be there, sounds like a lot of fun. It will be held Feb 13th at 10:45 Am AT Heron’s Glen, no registration is required. Location is 2250 Herons Glen Blvd. North Fort Myers FL 33903

A CERT refresher course will be held March 2nd from 10-3 in the North Fort Myers Park and Rec. All CERT members are encouraged to take this refresher course. Contact Kevin Walsh if interested.

The CERT picnic will be held March 10 from 11-2. It is ONLY for CERT members. See Kevin Walsh for details.

CPR class will be held at the North Fort Myers Fire House on Feb 7 at 12 PM. Cost is $25 for North Fort Myers CERT members, $50 for community members. Training consists of adult, child and infant CPR, AED training and basic first aid. The address is Station 1 , 2900 Trail Dairy Circle, North Fort Myers, FL 33903 . Contact Kevin Walsh if interested.

Volunteers needed for Spring Fest!! April 1st and North Fort Myers Park and Recreation. Duties include passing out water, minor first aid, parking cars, more details to follow.

RSW airport drills for disaster preparedness … February 23rd more details to follow…

Lake Fairways CERT TEAM meeting will be Monday, Feb 6th at 7 PM in the clubhouse a lounge. All are welcomed!

Submitted by Kevin Walsh

February 1, 2023

CERT leaders meeting, January 4th at Fire Station

01/07/23

Here is the update from the CERT leaders meeting, January 4th, 2023, at the North Fort Myers Fire Department. The CERT basic and refresher classes are being worked on. Looking for confirmed locations before we can give dates. The classes for basic are 4 days, 3 hours in the classroom and the 5th day is at the firehouse. The class for the refresher is 1 day, 5 hours in the classroom. CERT classes will be available February or March, to be determined. If we get enough participation from Lake Fairways, at least 8 people, we can have it at Lake Fairways.

Smoke detectors are being worked on starting again this week. If a Lake Fairways person was promised a smoke detector and did not get one, please contact Beth Helmick, NFMFD CERT Coordinator 239-340-0825.

Christi is having a CPR class that is certified on January 13th at the firehouse. The cost is $25 for CERT members and $50 for non-CERT members. If you complete the course and pay registration you will get your CPR card and be certified for 2 years. It’s open to anyone. The time is 10am. Please let Beth Helmick know if you want to attend. Lee County Animal Control will be holding a pet first aid class at the firehouse on Tuesday January 17th at 1pm. Please let Beth Helmick if you will attend. Del Tura is having their health fair on January 25th beginning at 9am.

Herons Glen is having their Firewise from 10:30am - 3pm on February 13th. It is very informative and interesting; no registration is needed just stop by.

Some new trainings are available. Stop the bleed class and crowd management for leaders is a beginning. Christi is going to check with the chiefs and firefighters about a simple consistent procedure for all CERT communities to use based on their Ian experience. She will give more information at the CERT leaders meeting.

The North Fort Myers Fire Department is located at 2900 Trail Dairy Circle North Fort Myers, FL.

Submitted by Kevin Walsh

January 7, 2023

JANUARY MEETING minutes

01/03/23

The Lake Fairways CERT team met last night in the clubhouse lounge, 01/02/23.

We were a small group but had a new couple, Alain and Sherry Gingras, that were interested in our team. Kevin Walsh oriented the Gingras on what our CERT team does, how we handled Ian, what we learned from Ian, how we get our donations for equipment, the smoke detector campaign, the Toy Drive, traffic control when needed, getting certified and how the team basically works.

We talked about having more demonstrations after Saturday morning coffee where we can get a bigger audience to make people more knowledgeable on CPR, how to use the AED machines and other areas.

Kevin indicated that we may have another certification class in either January or February for any interested parties, which will be announced.

Our next meeting will be held in the clubhouse lounge, February 6th at 7PM. The meeting is open to all CERT members and anyone who is interested in our efforts. We may not be a team that you see every day, but we are an important team to our community when it matters. It is important for our CERT team to be available when disaster strikes.

Submitted by

Kevin Walsh

Jan 3, 2023

CERT TOY COLLECTION

posted 12/15/22

What a turnout! Lake Fairways CERT team partnered again this year with the North Fort Myers Fire Department with a collection of toys for needy children.

The generosity of the Lake Fairways residents, Pine Lakes, friends and neighbors outside our community donated over 17 boxes of toys and over 20 bicycles to the North Fort Myers Fire Department. The North Fort Myers Fire Department work in conjunction with the North Fort Myers Baptist Church. There are currently 280 children who will get toys this year and there is a waiting list. In a meeting prior to the collection, the fire department stressed that more toys were needed this year due to Hurricane Ian displacing so many families. Our residents heard their plea and rallied to the cause. Various clubs of Lake Fairways, such as Aqua Babes, Ladies Golf and Bingo to name a few, had special collections, potluck dinners and various other ideas to help support the cause.

On Wednesday, December 14th, the North Fort Myers Fire Department came to Lake Fairways with blazing sirens on the Fire Truck and a 20 ft UHAUL. We stuffed the UHAUL! They were ecstatic when they saw what we have achieved. We beat Tara Woods!

It is an overwhelming response to a need especially this time of year. Residents of Lake Fairways and neighboring communities, you need to feel proud of your accomplishment! Thank you!

cert update

posted 11/23/22

CERT members went out as soon as they could assessing damage and looking for people in need after Hurricane Ian. They found the community to be strong in helping each other and looking out for their their neighbors.

CERT worked with the North Fort Myers Fire Department to get the tree and telephone pole clear on Congressional CT when a multitude of people indicated they could not access the road.

CERT members helped to get the debris out to the road and sorted for pickup.

This was CERT’s first disaster, a lot was learned, a lot of missed but we had a meeting with other CERT Team leaders this week from various communities and shared ideas and thoughts of what we could do better.

Some ideas to consider for future:

· Main roads need to be cleared ASAP for emergency vehicles, fire department can help with that.

· Generator and walkie talkies at the guard station a must so they have power and 2 walkie talkies for CERT to communicate with each other and the guard shack.

· List of residents who stayed/left.

· Putting an OK sign in your window for drive- by home checks by CERT.

· Early meeting with residents on upcoming disaster with important information, such as special needs shelter.

· Sign outside the guard station indicating the community is ALL CLEAR or NEED ASSISTANCE from the North Fort Myers Fire Department

Christi Kulwicki, NFM Education Director for CERT, Police and fire chief, policeman, fireman and first responders said that the CERT teams and community did a fantastic job on letting them know what was needed. By our diligence, they did not need to come in and check our community cul de sac by cul de sac because CERT was in constant contact them.

North Fort Myers Fire Department will be delivering 4 toy collection boxes in a couple of weeks. They emphasized the need for toys will be greater this year because of displaced families.

For anyone interested in joining CERT, there is a CERT class Nov 8,10,15,17 at Herons’ Glenn from 10-1 and Nov 18th at the NMF Fire House. You must call Beth @ 239-240-0825, class is limited.

The next Lake Fairways CERT meeting is Monday, Nov 7that 1 PM in the lounge. Anyone interested in CERT or current team members are encouraged to come.

Thank you,

Kevin Walsh

Lake Fairways CERT lead

MONTHLY DEMONSTRATIONS

The CERT team is putting on putting on a monthly demonstration of life-saving procedures following Coffee on Saturday at the clubhouse at The Lake Fairways clubhouse. On April 31 the demonstration was the proper use of fire extinguishers. On May 7 it was the demonstration of the proper use of the AED equipment and the life-saving procedure of CPR. The CERT team meets the first Monday of the month at 1 o’clock in the lounge at the Lake Fairways Clubhouse. All members of the community are welcome to join our meetings. The next official training session will be this fall, however we encourage interested parties to join us at these monthly meetings and learn more about how we can help our residents.

CERT Monthly Meeting, April 4, 2022

Leader: Kevin Walsh

Secretary: Karen Pratt

Present: Betty Michaleson, Richard Michaleson, Kevin Walsh, Rawson Beals, Karen Beals, Donna Ferrara, John Donahue

Discussion: The success of the fire extinguisher demonstration by NFFD at Saturday coffee, 4 /2/22. It was a great demonstration of the proper use of the fire extinguisher with a simulated fire display. Residents also learned how to tell if their personal fire extinguishers were still effective.

The lack of attendance at meetings – The meetings are once a month, on the first Monday of the month, at 1 PM in the lounge. Please put these meetings on your calendar. This is the only time we have for planning future training events for our residents and planning for recruiting new members. Members need to put our meetings on their personal calendar and dedicate that one hour a month to the CERT meetings.

The first Saturday of the month seems to be a great day for offering training residents in a life skill. In May, 5/7/22, we will be offering AED/CPR training after coffee. Future discussion will be held with those involved in the training. We do ask that all CERT members wear their vest and lanyards on that Saturday.

Richard Michaleson will be presenting a training program outline for future monthly meetings. The month of May will be traffic control. Easter – we asked for two volunteers to work the Easter program for traffic control, crowd awareness.

CERT will be posting pictures of the fire extinguishers demonstration and Christmas gift program in the Informer and on the website. We would like residents to join us for just basic training in a hope that we can recruit more members. It could be that the extensive one-week training is limiting residents from being involved in our membership. We want to invite volunteers that can be trained in simple, basic procedures, so they can be volunteer members of CERT. They would not be used for the more advanced areas we as members had been trained in. Hurricane season is approaching and simple tasks as checking properties for damage, traffic control, brush clearance, etc., can be done by volunteers with a CERT member.

We will be looking into future fund-raising activities. We also will be looking for more ways to have CERT members involved in community events.

Respectfully submitted, Karen Pratt Beals

Community Emergency Rescue Team

By Kevin Walsh, Team Leader, posted 10/29/21

The Lake Fairways CERT team presently has 18 certified members.

They work in conjunction with the N. Ft. Myers Fire Department.

SAFETY SEMINAR

Recently the team, in conjunction with the fire department, held a Safety Seminar at the Lake Fairways clubhouse. All residents were invited to attend this meeting. The primary focus of this meeting was fire safety and having smoke alarms in homes. Residents that attended this meeting were able to sign up and receive smoke alarms, (provided by the American Red Cross) which were installed later in their individual homes by members of CERT. There were also several other safety identifications available at that meeting; safety reflectors, pet identification stickers for the door, invalid identifications stickers, and ICE packets (emergency medical information) for the refrigerator. The CERT team hopes to have another of these seminars later in the year or in Spring.

CPR

In September the CERT members were offered a class for CPR certification. AED machines were also covered in the class.

FUTURE CERTIFICATION CLASSES

The CERT team plans to hold another class for residents to become Community Emergency Rescue Team members. A date will be announced.

The team also plans to hold other educational classes in the community, that will offer training in other safety issues, i.e., fire extinguishers, first aid, AED.

CHRISTMAS – TOYS FOR TOTS

CERT will be collecting new, unwrapped toys for all age children. Watch for the placement of a large box in the lobby for the toys to be deposited in. More information will be announced.

All this information will be available on the Lake Fairways website, in the Informer, and announced at Saturday morning coffees.

CERT PROGRAM

CERT Leader Meeting March 1, 2023

02/01/23

CERT Leader Meeting February 1, 2023

02/01/23

CERT leaders meeting, January 4th at Fire Station

01/07/23

JANUARY MEETING minutes

01/03/23

CERT TOY COLLECTION

posted 12/15/22

Toys donated

Meeting Cancelled

posted 12/07/22

cert update

MONTHLY DEMONSTRATIONS

CERT Monthly Meeting, April 4, 2022

Fire Extinguisher Demonstration by NFFD

CERT PROGRAM