Dear New Summer Friends

For my new summer friends — and my older friends, too!

Let me introduce myself . . .

I’ve been active as a “prepper” for over 15 years. It all started when I took a CERT  (Community Emergency Response Team) course sponsored by the city I live in.

Since then I’ve revisited my roots – My parents were pioneers in Alaska during the 30s – and caught up finally with my older brothers — Eagle Scouts in the 50s.

And, of course, I’ve added my own particular brand of activism based on a professional career as copywriter and marketer. Mostly that’s taken the form of helping build a local neighborhood Emergency Response Team right here in my senior retirement community.

And then there’s my writing.

About 8 years ago I started this website, meant to cover all aspects of sensible Emergency Preparedness. Since then I’ve populated it with hundreds of original articles (I call them “Advisories”) about preparing for potential threats, assembling supplies and gear, and getting neighbors involved. Happily, a number of people seemed to like the articles and they keep coming back for more!

Last year, I called on all this history — including words of wisdom from the friends — and wrote 4 books on the topic. Then just last month, I added a 5th title to the list! (See the sidebar.) 

Lots of writing! Maybe too much? 

Lots of thinking and researching disasters! Lots of drafting and redrafting (and learning how to manage a website, too.) When one of my subscribers wrote last week that she was just overwhelmed, I had to admit that it was time for me to take a summer break, too.

Then Digital Maestro Paul Taubman showed up with a summer blogging challenge. This was surely a sign that I should take this opportunity to segue to some shorter and lighter articles. Oh yes, they will still be about emergency preparedness – but in a lighter vein.

So welcome to Summer Vacation!

I hope you’ll read and enjoy and actually follow up on the summer Advisories that make sense for you and your family. You can sign up below to be sure you get all of them. And I invite you to let me know it there are topics you’d like to hear more about.

The way I see it, the more we all know, the safer we all will be!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team