Dedham, Canton Students Preparing Towns For Weather Emergencies

DEDHAM, MA — A group of 15 middle and high school students from Dedham and Canton met with the town's Sustainability Advisory Committee last Wednesday to discuss their efforts to improve the community's overall preparedness for weather-related emergencies such as flooding, extreme temperatures, blizzards, and hurricanes.

The students are part of Project PREP, which stands for Protecting Residents with Emergency Preparedness. At Wednesday's meeting, the group presented its most recent efforts to increase weather preparedness, a contest encouraging the community to gather emergency supplies recommended by FEMA and the American Red Cross.

"While New England has not experienced the recent devastation of hurricanes or wildfires as other parts of the country have, the students grew concerned that our local communities could do more to help residents plan and prepare for events that may put our region in danger," Monika Wilkinson, Dedham's program coordinator said.

The Project PREP team shared details of their contest with the committee and community members in attendance. Students encouraged residents of Dedham and Canton to gather at least 10 emergency items and send a photo of them to Dedhamfps@gmail.com. A list of reccomended emergency items can be found on the team's website. The contest is open until March 15. Winners will be selected with a raffle and will be awarded gift cards.

Last fall the team launched Project PREP in an effort to improve residents’ preparedness for severe weather events. Team members were unaware that The Town of Dedham was submitting a grant application that coincides with the group's efforts. The MVP grant program supports communities in planning for climate change resiliency and implementing priority projects.

" As the two efforts intersect, students have found an opportunity to share some of their work as well as participate in the community conversation focused on preparation for a changing climate," Project Prep said in a press release."

More information about the program can be found at the following links:

• Local level
• State level
• International level

Photo courtesy of Monika Wilkinson: Students with the town's Sustainability Advisory Committee