Started to write this, over in the 'What do you do' thread and then realized it belonged over here, in 'Introductions':
I'm a 'Stay-At-Home' mom, even though our kids are now 24 & 27. Always a mom and hopefully, someday, a Grandmom. Was a pre-school teacher, in my 20's. But that was a looooong time ago.
Found out, back in 2006 that I
LOVE 'Emergency Preparedness' and, if younger would have gone into that field. I think it's the teacher in me, that has contributed to my ability to educate folks so easily on the subject of prepping. I've developed a lot of techniques, handouts, presentation powerpoints, visuals & displays that seem to work really well. So, my claim is to be an Advocate for Emergency Home Preparedness because that's where I focus my efforts, after my family. (Sometimes before, if I'm truthful
). My Grandfather was a Fireman, in England, during WWII. Pulled many out of the rubble aftermath from bombs. My brother & his sons are firefighters. Same brother is also a Detective, Fire Chief, former SWAT & Rescue Diver. Other brother was also firefighter for a time. So, it seems that emergencies & preparedness are in my blood and I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
Started a non-profit, called 'ReadyMoms' Alliance about 10 years ago. (Using my screen name, but it actually mean
"moms that are ready" ... think of it like 'Mother's against Drunk Drivers', only we included dads, too, lol!) Non profit is defunct, now, but the I still carry the mission forward myself.
I used to do a LOT of public Emergency Home Prep events. Both locally, and on a state & national level ... attended a lot of national pandemic prep & emergency prep events with Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, CDC and the like. Met a lot of interesting people (with a lot of impressive credentials) who were quite surprised at the grass-roots movement we were starting by our little non-profit, led by a simple everyday Mom who had zero background & training in emergency prep! We were making prepping accessible to the average citizen through our presentations & visual displays. Something they had trouble with (Government was TELLING people to prepare for a pandemic event, but not SHOWING them how. (Seems simple enough concept, right??
) That was before prepping became a bit more popular. And before prepping became a concern for multiple reasons (financial, terror, etc., rather than just pandemic). And definitely before all the prep forums came onto the net. Now, I focus on reaching people through forums & social media. I seem to reach a lot more people that way. I've noticed a definite uptick in folks who want to prepare. They are hungry for advice on how to get started. It's still not 'main-stream' & widely accepted, but it has grown in numbers, since 2006-07. I've organized prep-meet up evens in my local state area a couple of times. They are time consuming to pull together. I'd rather focus on the net, now (Remember ... I've aged 10+ years, now
). -k
