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Community Corner

Wilton is CERT-ainly Well-Prepared

Wilton residents devote a great deal of time and effort to becoming and serving as members of CERT, a great boon to the town's emergency services.

Neither derailed trains nor downed planes nor natural disasters can stay these Wilton residents from swift completion of their appointed rounds: be it traffic detail or search and rescue.

They are nearly 90 strong. They are Wilton CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, a group of specially-trained residents that support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects.

“They can help when first responders get overwhelmed with victims.  We train people not just to help first responders, but to not become victims,” said Jack Majesky, coordinator of Wilton CERT.

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CERT began in 1985, when the Los Angeles City Fire Department decided civilians could make a difference in their city should disaster– manmade or natural- strike. Then, in 2005, a constable named Dick Ziegler founded Wilton’s program. Last summer he passed the reins to Majesky, an EMT volunteer.

“It was about getting in line with what happened after 9/11. We have to get some preparedness in Wilton.  It’s not that a plane is going to crash into a building here, but we might get the injured from an attack,” Majesky said.

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Now a line item on the Wilton budget, the program recently received a Homeland Security grant. The federal money outfitted the Wilton CERT team with updated equipment including new radios and road signs.

An attack isn’t the greatest threat, Majesky said. Members are more likely to get called to assist police and fire personnel during natural disasters from treacherous weather or car accidents on Route 7. Recently the team directed parking during flu clinics.

“It does involve going out a 2 am and directing cars,” Colleen O'Brien, a CERT instructor, said. “It was oddly satisfying though to be able to help people who didn’t know their way.”

Initially, O'Brien enrolled because she and her husband were going to become new parents.  They wanted to learn CPR.  Five years later O'Brien is teaching fellow Wiltonians how to save themselves and their neighbors.

It’s not easy becoming certified.  Trainees spend more than 20 hours learning everything from basic first aid to fire safety.  They learn how to maneuver through smoke filled rooms and how to splint a fractured leg.

“I tell them don’t try to do brain surgery if you are only equipped to do CPR,” Majesky said. “It teaches you how to take care of yourself, and then your family, then your neighbors and then community.”

CERT graduates have been trained to respond to emergency situations where actions can mean the difference between life and death.

“It’s gratifying stuff,” O'Brien said. “The fact that we have all these skills at the ready should our town need them is empowering.”

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