Workshop explores ways to prepare for community disasters

Disaster can strike at any time. Being prepared is a necessity. Attend a free workshop for the public and spiritual community to learn about each other’s role in the event of a disaster on August 21 at the First Presbyterian Church of Monterey.

Leaders from multiple faiths and medical personnel will discuss how to become a cohesive community disaster support team. Speakers will specify ways to get started and how to stay prepared. Among them, Dr. John Ellison, chief of staff and former medical director, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, will discuss emergency medical kits, and Greg Robinson, emergency preparedness chairman, Church of Latter-Day Saints, will introduce a proven five-step program to help you be prepared in case of a disaster.

“When we began organizing the annual workshop, we decided on two immediate courses of action, said Rev. Chris Williams, chaplain coordinator for Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, “to prepare each household and faith community with emergency first aid and disaster kits and connect participants to existing neighborhood disaster preparedness networks.”

Last year’s event was so successful that this year’s event was expanded to include the general public.

The “Shelters in the Storm” workshop will be 6 to 8 p.m., August 21, at 501 El Dorado Street, behind Jack-in-the-Box, in Monterey. The event is sponsored by Community Hospital ’s Chaplain Services through a generous donation from Marion Robotti.

For information, call Community Hospital ’s Chaplain Services, 622-2892.

Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, founded in 1934 and located at 23625 Holman Highway in Monterey , has grown and evolved in direct response to the changing healthcare needs of the people it serves. It is a nonprofit healthcare provider with 205 staffed acute-care hospital beds and 28 skilled-nursing beds, delivering a continuum of care from birth to end of life, and every stage in between. It serves the Monterey Peninsula and surrounding communities through 15 locations, including the main hospital, outpatient facilities, satellite laboratories, a mental health clinic, a short-term skilled nursing facility, Hospice of the Central Coast, and business offices. Find more information about Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula at www.chomp.org.