Contact: MaryJo Schaarschmidt, 925-580-0085 (mother)

One 12-year-old 7th grader planned her Girl Scout Silver Project to work with her school to have them participate in the Great ShakeOut. Her plans quickly grew into a powerful story of individual, school, church, and community hospital earthquake preparedness. All the information used was gathered from the Great ShakeOut website and links to the websites of sponsors.

Nicole Schaarschmidt incorporated emergency preparedness into her Girl Scout Silver Project when she registered the St. Raymond school (K-8) and entire St. Raymond parish on the ShakeOut website. Nicole then began to work with the Emergency Preparedness Team at ValleyCare Medical Center to bring resources to the school and the parish.

Nicole began preparing the families and the parishioners over 7 weeks ago. Spanish and English literature was printed and disseminated via the weekly school and parish bulletins and website links. The 7 steps to readiness were presented every week with the step of “Preparing Your Emergency Kit” highlighted. An online emergency preparedness store, MorePrepared.com, made St. Raymond an affiliate and gives the school 10% of all sales made by St. Raymond families.

In addition to the literature from the Great ShakeOut website, Nicole prepared 2 large display boards full of emergency equipment, lighting, food, water, family and animal kits all purchased from MorePrepared.com. Dressed in her ShakeOut T-shirt and MorePrepared.com ordering information, she presented these resources and knowledge of earthquake preparedness to over 1,000 staff members at ValleyCare during their annual Safety Fair and to over 3,000 parishioners at the annual St. Raymond Ministry Fair.

Nicole also met with the administration at her school and her principal, Mrs. Deehan, embraced the opportunity to review the school’s emergency preparedness plan that includes maintaining enough supplies to sustain all the students and staff for 72 hours. The students and staff will now participate fully in the 2010 Great California ShakeOut as the earthquake drill is played over the sound system followed by the entire school building being evacuated. A local expert in communication, Mr. Tom Noonan, also provided new powerful walkie talkies to the school to enhance communication between staff and emergency personnel.