Lakewood Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

___

We don’t like to think about it. Disasters, emergencies, accidents. We live a pretty safe life day-to-day here, don’t we? But those people in other parts of the country have all kinds of troubles. Fires! Floods! Tornadoes! Earthquakes! Deadly crashes, buildings collapsing, rockslides, mudslides… Good thing we’re safe here.

Sure we are. But as our neighbor Ken Fischer wrote in an article some time ago, ¹ “Oh, how many sad stories begin with that question, ‘What could go wrong?’” A corollary to realizing that things can go wrong is realizing that we can do something to be prepared. We can do something? “We” includes you. You can get free emergency training with the Lakewood Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

CERT training is FREE!

Three Saturdays, Starts next week! Saturday, August 2, 2025 | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

You can take the training to be prepared as an individual to protect your family and neighbors in an emergency, and optionally to join CERT as a team that can be mobilized in case of a local or widespread emergency. Having emergency-trained citizens makes for a safer environment for us all – individually in our homes and collectively as a community. Besides being available to be called up in a widespread emergency, where police and fire resources may be spread too thin, Lakewood CERT, as a team, provides volunteer safety patrol for events such as Lakewood Cider Days and the Independence Day celebration at Belmar.  

CERT Training teaches participants how to plan for an emergency and trains them in basic disaster response skills, including fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, emergency/disaster medical operations, disaster psychology and terrorism awareness. The training also helps to reduce the impact of disasters by teaching participants to recognize danger signs and promotes greater safety awareness. ²

The training is conducted on three Saturdays, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM at Green Mountain Rec Center. The next series begins Saturday, August 2 and continues on the two Saturdays following. People with all levels of physical fitness, ability, or disability can participate. 

Participants must attend all three dates to receive credit for the class. For a printable flyer with all the information about the course, CLICK HERE.

The class is free to attend. Registration is required. Click here to register.

When

Location

Green Mountain Recreation Center, 13198 W Green Mountain Drive, 80227

Subscribe to get an email notice when our weekly articles are published.

1. Emergency Preparedness, May 26, 2020 (read it after you’re done here)
2. Source: lakewood.org, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training