‘DO THE GREATEST GOOD’
Palos Park volunteer team draws on World War I idea to fund emergency efforts for community response
Volunteers in Palos Park are ready to help keep the community safe if they’re needed during a disaster, equipped with crowd control skills and medical training.
Now, a year after the group was founded in August 2022, the Palos Park Community Emergency Response Team is raising money for uniforms and equipment.
Since starting up, the 19 volunteers have attended regular classes and training sessions. They’re charged with being on hand to help before firefighters or police arrive.
“We’re the new kids on the block,” said Palos Park police Officer Fernando “Frank” Flores, the village’s Emergency Management/CERT coordinator who helped organize the program. “A lot of other communities have had CERT for some time and we were actually scheduled to start the month COVID hit.”
Now up and running for a year, the team has issued its first Challenge Coin to help with funding. Challenge coins date back to World War I and were a way to identify military units and to boost camaraderie, according to Flores. The Palos Park coins are marked with the team logo and are available to anyone for $10 by contacting Flores at fflores@palospark.org.
Flores, a retired Illinois State Police commander with a background in emergency management, said the strength of the Palos Park team is its local nature.
“Preparedness has to start at the individual and family level,” he said. “A lot of people rely on government, but if you think about it, during a disaster, it’s usually members of the public or your neighbor who respond, even before professional
responders get there.”
During a recent training session, members learned about crowd management and helped monitor the crowd at the village’s Concert on the Green. That training will help them prepare for the village’s popular Autumn in the Park event Sept. 16. They also have to complete coursework and eight training sessions, part of a FEMA-certified program that includes a final written exam.
Flores called the live event training “management, not control.”
“Helping people who are lost, watching individuals for behaviors that perhaps need to be responded to by police officers or firemen,” Flores said. “Working the special events helps them utilize their skills and build team cohesion.
“Thank goodness we don’t have disasters happen on a regular basis.”
But they prepare for disasters, too, learning skills such as setting up a triage area and