SEQUIM — Eight volunteers who serve on Eastern Clallam County’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) have been named recipients of the President’s Volunteer Service Award for 2021.
The President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation founded this recognition each year for individuals “whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action, too,” according to program organizers.
Representatives with Clallam County Fire District 3 presented the Volunteer Service Awards on Thursday to each of these volunteers, each of whom contributed several hundred hours of uncompensated public service to their community during 2021:
• Gold (500-plus hours of service in the calendar year) — Keith Koehler, Cindy Zechenelly, Blaine Zechenelly.
• Silver (250-499 hours) — John Anzalotti, Judi Chapman, David Johannssohn, John Viada, Butch Zaharias.
CERT trains citizen volunteers to augment and enhance the fire district’s ability to perform its mission during major emergencies.
“During times of overwhelming demand for limited first responder resources, the addition of CERT-trained volunteers provides local fire commanders a force multiplier that can be deployed and directed to great effect,” noted representatives with Eastern Clallam County CERT.
“CERT volunteers offer their services freely, and such help, when properly trained and organized, is extremely cost-effective.”
Local CERT volunteers also have been called upon to help search for lost children, staff emergency coordination centers, assist in food distribution efforts, assist in mass vaccination operations and assist the American Red Cross and other relief organizations in mass care and sheltering activities.
The eight award winners were chiefly involved in two major CERT activities during the COVID-19 pandemic: the drive-thru vaccination effort and the food distribution effort.
CERT officials note that “the sudden availability of COVID-19 vaccination supplies in January 2021 was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm and public demand for immediate access to the promised immunizations.”
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s medical clinic in Sequim procured the vaccines but needed more logistical resources to manage the large numbers of persons who would need to be seen and individually vetted for the treatments.
The City of Sequim and Fire District 3 were able to assemble a workforce of 180 CERT-trained volunteers. These volunteers worked in three shifts of 60 to guide and manage the flow of automobile traffic through Carrie Blake Community Park, vaccination tent and the post-vaccination waiting areas. Within four months, more than 25,500 people received both Moderna shots (initial and booster vaccine), exceeding 51,000 separate injections.
CERT volunteers guided more than 20,000 automobiles through the drive-thru vaccination clinic without a single mishap or injury, organizers noted.
CERT volunteers were also busy throughout the pandemic working to provide emergency food relief to families who were suffering from lost income and related work restrictions.
Partnering with the “Feed America Program” and the Sequim Food Bank, CERT volunteers operated a Community Point of Distribution (CPOD) in Sequim that provided weekly food care packages to local families in need.
During the last six months of 2020 and the first six months of 2021, local CERT volunteers delivered more than 1.02 million pounds of food relief to the community, organizers said — or about 850,000 meals made directly available to families in need.
“The examples set by Eastern Clallam County CERT volunteers, in both the drive-thru clinic and the food distribution efforts, not only served the immediate needs of the local public but have also underscored the potential value of future interagency partnerships in general, and the ready availability of CERT volunteers’ contributions in particular,” CERT representatives said.
For more about the President’s Volunteer Service Award program, visit presidentialserviceawards.gov/about.
For information about CERT, visit: ccfd3.org/emergency-services/community-emergency-response-teams-cert-program.
