Students Safe and Sound at Sinaloa Emergency Preparedness Event

Safety Day was a huge success on a recent day at thanks to several volunteers, organizations and businesses that stepped up to increase awareness about emergency preparedness.

Sinaloa’s Emergency Response Team students worked hard to prepare for Safety Day activities on May 20. The idea started with John Wyek, a longtime NUSD parent and the emergency preparedness chair for Sinaloa and the North Marin Council PTA.  Upon receiving support for the idea from Sinaloa administration, Wyek took the concept to Marilyn Murphy, PE teacher and head of Sinaloa’s ERT program.

Wyek lined up participation from outside agencies such as the Novato Fire District, Novato Police Department, Marin Humane Society, Red Cross Bay Area, CPR Etc., and DefensePro.org. Murphy brought in her students to create signs and posters and help plan out the event including skits on how to respond to different scenarios.

The purpose of this event was to inform middle school students and their families about emergency preparedness in a fun and exciting way, and to help raise awareness of the ERT program at Sinaloa. The group hopes to expand the event to all schools within the Novato Unified School District next year.

Costco, Pini Hardware, the Kradepohl Family, DefensePro.org and the Novato Fire District donated raffle prizes. Sandy Wargo, information officer for the Novato Fire District, brought the event's biggest attractions (the fire trucks and firefighters) and led the live fire extinguisher training for the ERT students.