PC students participate in camp
By Staff
Melissa Cason
PHIL CAMPBELL- Two Phil Campbell sixth graders are part of the fourth annual Be Ready Camp this week at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.
Kelley Presley and Trenton Harris were both selected to attend the camp.
"We had four students selected two years ago and now we have two students selected this year," Phil Campbell Elementary School Principal Jackie Ergle said.
The students weren't just selected randomly. The selection process was competitive. Applicants submitted an essay, poster or video.
Presley said she decided to submit a poster last year.
"My poster was about living in a clean environment," she said.
Harris said he decided to submit an essay about what a safe community means to him.
Both students were selected for the program from these submissions.
"I gave them directions on what to submit and they did the work independently," said their teacher, Jill Harris.
"I try to select students who will be able to complete the submission by themselves with no help."
The students began their week at the space center Tuesday and the camp will last through Saturday.
Be Ready Camp utilizes a modified Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training as its foundation and is broadened to include additional lessons. The curriculum includes: emergency preparedness, introduction to survival and first aid, developing an emergency kit, creating a family disaster plan, water survival, light search and rescue, disaster, psychology, triage, career exploration and terrorism awareness.
Throughout each lesson, the participants have the ability to demonstrate their knowledge with hands-on demonstrations in addition to traditional assessment.
The camp also includes a mock disaster, where the youth perform victim search and rescue missions alongside professional responders in a realistic setting.
Presley and Harris both said they are looking forward to the camp.
"I just want to meet new people," Presley said, while Harris is looking forward to learning new skills.
"I am glad they are teaching us what to do if a terrorist attacks," Harris said.
While each student has a different goal for the week, Ergle said it's an honor for her students to be selected.
"It's truly an honor to be selected for this program," she said. "We are all very excited about it and can't wait until they get back to see what they learned while they were there."
