CERT Drill Victims

San Ramon Valley CERT is a non-profit organization that and prepares participants on natural disaster and emergency preparedness. The program was created in order to educate individuals on how to perform a triage, classify an individual’s physical health during an emergency, give proper medical treatment to the injured, and more!

At the CERT program, the Interact volunteers are assigned to act as victims for the CERT attendees. Volunteers will be allowed to choose their injuries such as broken legs, a dislocated shoulder, and visible fractures. Based on the choice of injuries, CERT workers may apply fake blood, dust, or ash on the volunteers to make them appear as real victims. The volunteers will then be directed to a dark room where they will act as if they are injured (or dead) people in a natural disaster. CERT participants will then arrive to ask the “victims” about their physical health and categorize them into groups based on this information. The victims will then receive the proper medical care to their injuries.

This event was an extremely enjoyable. I chose to have two broken legs so I didn’t have to wear any makeup, but I did have to act like my legs were broken. Some of the other volunteers had gory-looking injuries that looked incredibly real. Overall it was interesting experiencing what it would be like as a victim in an emergency.

Here’s some advice I’d like to offer to future CERT victims:

Get there a few minutes early. Getting to the fire department early means you will have a larger variety of injuries to choose from. The provided pizza will still be hot too!
Be ready to act. Victims will be instructed to act according to their injuries. The CERT workers make it clear that they do not appreciate victims fooling around or laughing during the event.
Choose an injury that best suits you. If you prefer acting, choose an injury that involves more acting than makeup. If you’d rather wear makeup with minimal acting, then select an injury that best fits that.