A few days after a gunman fired into the Highland Park Fourth of July parade crowd in 2022, killing seven people and wounding dozens more, members of Waukegan’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) were dispatched to help the victims.
Karen Ball, a Waukegan real estate agent and a CERT instructor, said the team of volunteers worked at a relief center at Highland Park High School helping people deal with stress in a variety of ways.
“We helped reunite people with their lost possessions,” she said. “They scattered everywhere. They were dealing with all kinds of stress. We did everything we could to help them.”
Capt. Matt Burleson of the Waukegan Fire Department runs the city’s CERT team. He said the members are volunteers who successfully complete a nine-session training program developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Volunteers are being sought for the next training program starting at 7 p.m. March 21 at Waukegan Fire Station 5 on Green Bay Road. To attain CERT certification, participants must complete the course on successive Thursdays for nine weeks.
Ball said she got involved when the program first started approximately 20 years ago and was operated by the Waukegan Police Department. It lapsed briefly, and was restarted by Burleson at the fire department 11 years ago.
“It started for me after 9/11,” Ball said. “I wanted to go there and help, but I wouldn’t know what to do. I took the CERT course, and now I do.”
Originally designed by FEMA to develop an emergency response team to help with natural disasters like earthquakes in California and hurricanes in Florida, Burleson said after 9/11 it was expanded to deal with more.
Sometimes, the CERT team is dispatched to be present in the event of problems, like in September when it was at the annual Northern Illinois Air Show at the Waukegan National Airport.
“There were just a few bee stings,” Burleson said. “It was that time of year, and there was a lot of soda around. We’re there in case we are needed.”
Situated along Lake Michigan, he said natural disasters are less likely in Waukegan than in other nearby Lake County communities like Mundelein, where a tornado struck last week. Nonetheless, the CERT team there remains busy.
“The lake eats the energy off the storms before they get here,” he said.
Burleson said he begins the course with a story about volunteers who helped when there was a severe earthquake in Mexico City in 1985. Proper training is intended to prevent what happened there.
“There were 700 lives saved, but 100 of the volunteers lost their lives helping the victims,” he said. “We tell them, you don’t want to be part of the 100 who lost their lives.”
Should an emergency occur, Burleson said the first thing he teaches his recruits to do is make sure they are safe, take care of their family and then go about volunteering to help others.
Among the things taught in the CERT course are how to use a fire extinguisher, the proper way to move an injured person to avoid further injury and situational psychological concerns.
“Victims go through various phases of reaction,” he said. “People all react differently. You need to be aware of that to help them out. You do not want to be around an active crime scene.”
Though approximately 100 people have gone through the training since Burleson started teaching the course, he said there are around 12 reliable volunteers who are always available to respond. The course is offered twice a year.
