Public health exercise needs volunteers for large simulated 'disaster'

Collin County is hosting its largest ever full-scale public health emergency exercise on May 5 – and you’re invited to join us.

The Collin County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is conducting  a full-scale medical countermeasure dispensing exercise at Frisco’s Wakeland High School, with community partners, non-profits, and local businesses coming  together to support this large test of Collin County’s public health emergency preparedness plans.

The simulated public health emergency is designed to test MRC volunteers’ ability to rapidly dispense medication to the public.

In order to appropriately test these plans, MRC Coordinator Maria Stephens hopes to have more than 1,000 members of the general public stop by throughout the day.

“Our volunteers have spent many hours training for this exercise,” says Stephens. “We really want the public to help us push this exercise to its limit.”

Here are some added benefits to showing up on May 5:

• Community service hours for High School students headed for college ;
• Extra credit for students (with prior teacher approval);
• General participation hours for community service by corporations.

All participants will be given a certificate of attendance at the exercise site. Some area Boy Scout troops are also using this exercise to meet emergency preparedness merit badge requirements.

Gift cards and prizes from local businesses will also be randomly distributed to those who attend.

Members of the general public are highly encouraged to participate on May 5, any time between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Participation will take around 20 minutes, and no pre-registration is necessary. Anyone interested can sign up for email reminders at http://bit.ly/MRCexercise.

The exercise will be held at Wakeland High School, 10700 Legacy Rd., Frisco, Texas, 75034.

The Collin County Medical Reserve Corps is made up of both medical and non-medical volunteers who are trained to assist in a public health emergency, including bioterrorism and pandemic flu. The County MRC currently has over 1,400 volunteers, and continually enrolls new members.

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