September (was) Preparedness Month! Prepare!

Volunteer Spotlight

Welcome New Members

CPR/AED Training Highlights

Schaghticoke Fair

MRC Crossword Challenge

Let’s rebuild the ranks!

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Volume 3, Issue 4

Disasters tend to occur at the most inconvenient times (as if

there was ever a convenient time for one)! September being

our National Emergency Preparedness Month, our county

health department wants to remind us to be ready for whatev-

er life throws at us. Do you have a Go-Bag ready? A family

meeting place? An evacuation route, shelter plan and way to

receive emergency alerts and warnings? Do you have all the

appropriate insurance coverages and are they up-to-date?

Do you have copies of your important documents safe and

secure in the Cloud for easy access? How about food and

water for your family (including pets) for several days? (Remember the can opener!) Don’t forget

some extra cash, gas, clothes, hygiene and other emergency items such as flashlights, batteries, first

aid kit and cellphones with chargers. Jennifer Lee, our Emergency Preparedness Training and Exercise

Coordinator puts out a quarterly newsletter that’s always chock full of good ideas on whole range of

preparedness topics. If you’d like to be added to her mailing list, email her at

JLee@rensco.com. Preparedness should be a great joint effort! Get everyone in your

household involved with ideas and implementation. Our founding father, Ben Franklin had

it right: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail!

Sal Scecchitano, MRC Coordinator

Volunteer Spotlight… Rev. Dr. Gloria Jimpson, RN MSN.

Gloria joined our MRC before retiring from the NYS Department of

Health. A lifelong resident of Rensselaer County, she holds degrees

from Russell Sage College and Drew University. She has volun-

teered for the United Way and Big Brothers and Sisters of Albany

and also serves as an usher for the Capital Repertory Theater.

GloJo, as we like to call her, is a board member of Columbia Coun-

ty Pathways to Recovery, an organization offering hope, advocacy, education and support

for anyone seeking support, relief and recovery for individuals and families impacted by the

crisis of substance use disorders.

Gloria is also the ordained pastor of The Payne AME Church in Chatham and loves working

toward the maintenance of safety nets for all people. She enjoys the people and mission of

the Rensselaer MRC and loves acquiring new skills and keeping them current. We are very

grateful to have GloJo on our team!

MRC Volunteer

Gloria Jimpson

Welcome

New Members!

ALAN CUNNINGHAM

BETTY LOU EDDY

PAUL EDDY

MANUEL FERNANDEZ-VILLADEREY

SHANNON JUDISKY

LAURIE KLINE

EDWARD KRAUS

LINDA KRAUS

STEPHANNIE LEBRECHT

ZACHARY O’FARRELL

MARY ALICE PASANEN

AVANI PATHAK

JOHANNA TRAHAN

CAROL WILEY

Page 2 RENSSELAER COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

MRC’s Biannual

CPR/AED

Training

Tuesday, July 17

Bernie, Tina, Nicoole, Judy & Ellen

getting past the book part and

ready for hands-on!

Jerry, Vera, Jen and Pat

work the pre-test

Andrea, Patti, Rachel & Hank

taking it all in

Instructor Staff—Sal, Rich & Sox

run the gamut of emotions!

Instructor Rich Elder

goes over the basics

Amanda (Sox) Serafini

hangin’ with the dummies!

“Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive!”

CPR Travolta style...

2018

Page 3

CROSSWORD CHOICES (combine some with a hyphen or use 2 words with a space)

CASH CAN HAND PANCHO WHISTLE GO GLOW HYGIENE DOCUMENTS

DUCT BAG TAPE PETS STICKS CHARGER CRANK OPENER RAIN

RENSSELAER COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

SAVE THE DATE!

THURSDAY,

October 25

5:30pm

OUR NEXT

QUARTERLY

MRC MEETING

County Office Bldg.

2nd Floor

Conference Rm.

Rensselaer County

Dept. of Health

Preparedness Division

A national network of local groups of volunteers engaging local communities to strengthen public health, reduce vulnerability, build resilience, and improve preparedness, response and

recovery capabilities. Maryfran Wachunas

Public Health Director

Len Claus

Emergency Preparedness

Coordinator

Jennifer Lee

Public Health

Preparedness Trainer

Sal Scecchitano

Public Health Aide

Medical Reserve Corps

Coordinator

Sscecchitano@rensco.com

1600 Seventh Avenue

Troy NY 12180

(518) 270-2633

(518) 270—2638 (fax)

Next Meeting

MRC QUARTERLY MEETING DATES FOR 2018

GET IT ON YOUR CALENDAR NOW!

Thursday, October 25 (change from previous)

ServNY 2.0 Upgrade Generates Immediate

Need for New Volunteers

For some time, we’ve been doing battle with the state’s “new and improved”

database system of MRC volunteers. Readers of previous issues of this newslet-

ter are most likely aware of the frustrations that has caused. Now that the

changeover deadline has passed, all those members who never claimed their

migrated profiles have been wiped off the database. In the vast majority of

cases, those folks have not been active with the MRC for at least a couple of

years. Nonetheless, it knocks us down from about 200 MRC members in

Rensselaer County to about 85. Among those losses are 38 nurses and several

physicians. It is time to recruit! Spread the word about this very meaningful

avenue of community service with your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers.

If you’d like some brochures to hand out, I’d be happy to send you some.

Let’s rebuild the ranks!