The Loop Newspaper - Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide

One thing the 28 organizations represented at Tehachapi's April 26 Non-Profit Showcase at Jacobsen Middle School gymnasium have in common – in addition to the free chocolate and pens at the booths – is the donation of thousands of hours of time.

Volunteers from the organizations donate their time training service dogs, working with children, feeding the hungry, staffing the Tehachapi, Depot or Errea House museums, running service clubs, scheduling hikes to Tomo Kahni State Historic Park, raising funds for the Tehachapi Symphony Orchestra programs, supporting U.S. military veterans, organizing Relay for Life to fight breast cancer or training members of the community to survive a disaster, and aiding young families through the Family Life Pregnancy Center.

The Rotary Club of Tehachapi sponsored the event, with Linda Carhart at the helm.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) booth featured a miniature display of a man trapped under a broken slab. CERT educator and board member Jeannie Taylor demonstrated simple engineering tactics that can be implemented until first responders arrive. The process is called "cribbing."

"We are trained to make a bad situation better," Taylor told Forde Files. "We want to do the greatest good for the greatest amount of people in the shortest amount of time until responders get there."

To the untrained, engineering the rescue of someone who is trapped is daunting.

"People get freaked out" when faced with such a situation, she said. The CERT program teaches people to use the materials that are at hand to launch a rescue.

"Preparing is not a guarantee of survivability, but it definitely increases your odds."

People can take a CERT course as a self-help project or be part of a neighborhood team. So far, CERT teams have been established – or are just beginning – in the communities of Old West Ranch, Mountain Meadows, Sand Canyon, Mountain Aire Estates, Alpine Forest, Golden Hills, the city of Tehachapi and at Bear Valley.

Jobs within the CERT program include overall management, safety person, medical person and builders.

Training keeps skills fresh and enables participants to teach each other.

CERT has six response trailers filled with emergency supplies dotted around the Tehachapi valleys. Members are raising money to purchase storage trailers for Alpine Forest and Old West Ranch. The trailers are filled with emergency supplies – triage and general supplies, lights, cribbing materials, search and rescue, items to fix minor damage to a building and more.

"The biggie here is a major earthquake," Taylor said. "If we can do earthquake, we pretty much can do anything."

CERT training is based on Federal Emergency Management Agency training. While they are independent groups, the local CERT managing agency is the Kern County Fire Department.

CERT classes are scheduled for June 10, 17 and 24. The local lead coordinator is Jim Nelson of Bear Valley Springs, who is retired from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. For information, see CERT online or call 661-821-5205. The email contact is gtvcert@gmail.com.

The Tehachapi Symphony Orchestra offers free concerts of the world's greatest music and a development program that includes a Junior Orchestra and a Strings Orchestra. The music director is David Newby. The next concert is May 7, 2017 at Country Oaks Baptist Church, 4 p.m. The program features Brahms and Sarasate.

At the Relay for Life booth, Virginia Staabs and Robin Sodergren reported that 22 teams have signed up for the 2017 event, which will be structured differently than in past years. The Saturday, July 8 event will be held at Meadowbrook Park in Golden Hills rather than at Coy Burnett Stadium, and it will be 12 hours, not 24 – that is, no sleepover. Two mini-festivals, Bark for Life and a Cancer Run, will make up the 24 hours. See Relay for Life Tehachapi online for information on the teams and the event.

Nick Smirnoff (NPPA)

Left, CERT trainer Jeannie Taylor demonstrates the "cribbing" technique to rescue trapped victims. Above, Mikayla Hart and her service dog Teddy Bear. Hart is associated with Operation Heal, which partners service dogs with children.

Windswept Farm Animal Education Center at Windswept Farm Ranch, which features 145 animals, including reindeer, zebras and camels Maggie, Minny, Mack, Malachi and Michael, needs volunteers to help clean, weed and work on fencing. The is located off Tehachapi-Willow Springs Road on the way toward Rosamond. Call 661-809-3965.

The Salvation Army Community Center is sponsoring a Tehachapi Youth Center 5K run on September 30 to raise funds for the after-school center, which 20 to 25 students visit after school. The Salvation Army is accepting donations to help send youngsters to summer camp at Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz. The Tehachapi Salvation Army unit has 39 spots for the camp, according to Center Coordinator Michal Knowles. Approximately $200 will send a low-income youngster to camp. Call 661-823-9508.