Monterey County Organization preparing teens for Natural Disasters..

Monterey County Community Emergency Response Training held it’s first programs for teens.

Boys and girls from around Monterey County ranging from 12 to 17 were taught different skills necessary to help with diaster relief. The training included hands on activities including search and rescue, stinting and learning how to carry a gurney or stretcher.

On Sunday they also participated in a realistic simulated disaster where they put some of the skills they had learned to the test.

At the end of the training each person received a certificate and became a certified TEEN CERT member, they also got a backpack equipped emergency equipment.

Director of the TEEN CERT program in Missouri, Mark Rosenblum, was the primary instructor for the course. He has been involved with the training for 14 years and says these trainings often inspire kids to get into the medical field. “It’s amazing how many of the kids I taught 14 years ago or 10 years ago come up to me or invite me to their college graduations that have become doctors or paramedics or nurses or something in the first responder field,” says Rosenblum.

Sarah and Harvey Pressman with the CERT program in Monterey County took the initiative to set up the training. This was the first of it’s kind in the County, they say they do not plan on it being the last.