Greenville Rotary meeting report - January 25th

John Warner and Jim Gruenberg

The Greenville Rotary Club met Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at the Chestnut Village Community Center of the Brethren Retirement Community with 23 members and 3 guests in attendance.

Following lunch at Noon, the club enjoyed hearing the program speaker Jim Gruenberg from Wright State University. He is with the National Center for Medical Readiness. They are in the process of creating CalamityVille. Jim stated that disasters are a constant. It isn’t if a disaster is going to happen, it is when and we need to figure out a better way to respond to them. The goal of the NCMR is to enhance medical capabilities in a disaster and create a disaster resilient healthcare community. The focus has been a human population risk assessment, human survivability systems, medical response systems, healthcare system recovery and workforce development. CalamityVille is located on 54 acres in Fairborn on an old factory site. There are four key activities that will take place there: training, exercise, research and a test bed. They also have classrooms and practical test areas such as a train wreck, water landing and 500 feet of tunnels. This currently is the only program in place looking specifically at the private healthcare system. Texas A&M has a Disaster City that focuses on search and rescue.

Anyone interest in becoming a member of the Greenville Rotary Club may contact the Club Secretary, Christy Baker at 937-548-3777 or by email at cbaker@ymcadarkecounty.org; or the Club Treasurer, Diane Shuff at 937-548-6181 or by email at dshuff@myfsbdirect.com. You may also obtain further information on our blog at http://darkecountyview.com/greenvillerotary/.