Scout teaches others to be prepared
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Greenridge Estates residents were invited to be part of Brian Bruegge’s Boy Scout Eagle project Saturday that brought home the scout motto of “be prepared” as the neighborhood worked through several emergency scenarios.
The Eagle award is a performance achievement that requires the scout to fulfill areas of leadership, service, and outdoor skills, according to the Boy Scouts of America website. The Eagle project must be community based, and the scout is required to write an essay of the project and results. According to the website, only five percent of scouts achieve the Eagle badge.
When Bruegge began thinking of his project he remembered that a family friend, Dorothy DeVore, had a background in emergency drills.
“Dorothy worked with emergency preparedness in her neighborhood,” Bruegge said.
DeVore was in charge of disaster preparedness for the Greenridge Homeowners Association in her neighborhood adjacent to the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club.
“Obviously [being prepared] is pretty important. If you don’t have a plan you can be in trouble,” Bruegge said. “You have to know what is going on [in case of an emergency].”
Bruegge and three other scouts from his Troop 398, based at the La Cañada Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, canvassed the Greenridge neighborhood and invited all to participate.
“Participation wasn’t as high as I wanted,” Bruegge said. “A lot of people were out of town for the [Thanksgiving] holiday.”
But an estimated 60 percent did respond, according to Bruegge’s mother, Carol.
The neighbors were given potential disaster earthquake scenarios that included small events like a water leak in a kitchen to larger events like major structure damage to a home. Each resident was given a different emergency scenario in a sealed envelope and told not to open it until they heard a fire engine siren. Bruegge contacted local fire station 82 to drive down the street with sirens to signal the beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday.
DeVore, along with association president Kevin Baines, Carol and Tom Bruegge, and eight scouts set up command tables in front of Ron and Kris Blom’s home in the 5700 block of Forest Ridge Road. Bryn Oh, a member of the city’s Volunteer Emergency Response Team, commonly referred in the Foothills as VERT, was on hand to help the residents with any questions they had.
Oh said not only does this type of emergency exercise help people get prepared, it also allows residents the opportunity to meet each other — in some instances for the first time.
“It is important to know and trust one and other,” Oh said. “And to [isolate] what the problems are that need to be worked on.”
Oh said it is important to be prepared for all emergencies, big and small.
“Fire is the big [emergency] because in La Cañada we are near the Angeles Forest and we are building closer and closer to [the mountain areas],” she said. “It is important to come together to work with the big and small emergency events.”
Baines and DeVore agreed that one of the advantages of Bruegge’s Eagle project was to get neighbors together.
“Many of these [residents] I have e-mailed but have never met,” Baines said. “Everybody is so busy nowadays that it is difficult to take the time for [the emergency drill]. I am glad to see that some people did take the time to [participate] and meet each other.”
DeVore appreciated the fact Eagle Scout candidate Bruegge approached her with the drill proposal.
“I probably wouldn’t have done it on my own,” DeVore said.
Tom Bruegge, Brian’s father and assistant scout leader, was proud of his son’s project.
“This was a different kind of service project,” Tom said. “But it filled a real need in the community.”
The Greenridge homeowners association has an ongoing emergency preparedness program. For information e-mail
or call (818) 952-5282.