Community Corner

Local MRC Program Aims to Keep Western Springs Prepared

The Fire Department program, approaching its two-year anniversary, is launching a new campaign to add to its existing 40-person staff of volunteers.

You don’t have to be a doctor, or a firefighter, or anything at all in particular to join the Western Springs Medical Reserve Corps. You just have to want to help keep the Village prepared for emergencies.

“There’s a job for anybody,” said Tim Conley, the program’s coordinator and Director of Planning and Preparedness, and a member of the . “The real definition of this is: anytime people need help, or the Village needs help in providing assistance, we use them to support us.”

Still developing as it approaches two years of serving Western Springs, the WSMRC continues to grow as it seeks new members to assist in its goal of having community volunteers prepared to help out in any crisis situation.

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One of the basic ideas behind the program is that sudden emergencies can swamp official response personnel, who then require additional help for still-critical duties—like answering phones at the Fire Department while members are all out dealing with mass flooding.

The WSMRC was founded in January 2010, and members have already contributed in several critical roles: providing support during the H1N1 pandemic, inspecting basements during the  , providing meals for overworked Public Works employees and checking on elderly residents during the , and helping out during the .

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“We work with the more everyday things so that the professionals are free to do large-scale operations, which is what they’re trained for,” explained Laura Ozark, a Loyola Hospital physician and Village resident who shares the program’s medical-director duties with her husband Greg.

“It’s a group of community-minded people trained and ready to help.”

In addition to preparing to provide support for local emergencies, the WSMRC also works to prepare residents for larger-scale disasters (“community resiliency”) by encouraging them to keep safety precautions like an emergency-preparedness “go kit.”

“In any disaster, it’s going to take some time for the federal government to provide help,” Ozark added. “It’s really going to be the community who are going to have to rally together in the first 72 hours. That’s the lesson that was learned from Katrina.”

WSMRC is Western Springs’ part of the Medical Reserve Corps, a national organization founded in 2002 by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11 to promote local emergency preparedness. The MRC got a significant boost after the Hurricane Katrina disaster; according their website, there are now 968 local MRC units across all 50 states.

Western Spring beat out La Grange to get an MRC, but was preempted by a combined Indian Head Park and La Grange Highlands unit. In Western Springs, the WSMRC is organized under the Fire Department and deployed by the Village fire chief (currently Tony Bednarz, soon to be Patrick Kenny.)

The WSMRC is now launching a campaign to encourage recruitment. “We’re going to put some posters up around town,” as well as adding a link to the Village website, said program Development Coordinator Heather Molinaro, (They will also begin posting articles in the Tower Topics newsletter.)

“We need help everywhere,” added Conley. “If something happens in town, not everyone is going to necessarily be able to come. But if we have volunteers in other parts of town… if you have three people for each job, it’s a safe thing that one of the three will be available.”

And, again, he emphasized: “anyone can help. There’s a job for anybody. We can find a job for anybody.”

Anyone interested in the WSMRC should contact Conley at tconley@westernsprings.com or at 708-246-1800 x178.


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