The Clallam County Safety Fair is the biggest single event of my year. We generally start planning in December for the first Saturday in October. in the weeks leading up to the fair I was fielding up to 30 emails a day and I was just the outdoor booths co-coordinator!
Along with organizing the outdoor booths this year, I was creating two and involved in a third. Each needed an activity and topical information, posters, and displays.
Hubby John and I put together a booth for him to man on What Goes In a First Aid Kit. Because the event is sponsored by CERT, the local fire department, the city, and an organization called Clallam Ready, all recommendations had to be lawsuit proof, including our informational links. It was tricky to find “prepper” medical supply lists on websites that passed that test so I ended up making my own. I’ll put the link to the list on my recommendations page.
Next we put together shadow box displays of medical supplies, which was far more fun than I expected, and borrowed a giant stuffy dog from the girls to use as a Stop the Bleed demonstration. John had a lovely time talking about our favorite cheap first aid hack, which is to use Preparation H wipes as a cheaper alternative to lidocaine patches (Preparation H wipes have 5% lidocaine and are a fraction of the price of the others).
My second booth was a Shelter Demo, with two Red Cross cots set up to look like one of the four shelters in town. It turns out there is a very specific trick to setting up a Red Cross cot. You have to sit on the ground, place your feet on the legs of the cot and pull back on the cross bar as hard as you can while someone anchors the other end. Thankfully we had someone on hand who had gone through the training!
There were two goals for this booth, one being to dissuade people from expecting too much from the shelters and the other to encourage organizations to volunteer to host shelters themselves. There are currently only 360 potential shelter beds available in any given disaster, and over 8,199 residents in Sequim-proper.
Most of my day was spent hovering between the Girl Scouts’ “What to do When the Power Goes Out/Activity Go-bags” booth and the First Aid tent next door. Violet was a champ and worked all day, leading Lego builds and chatting with kids. I filled in gaps with the parents, offering board game recommendations and promoting D&D.
After nine hours of set-up on Friday and a 6:30am-5pm shift yesterday, I was pretty tired. But it was great to check my email today and only have two emails about the fair–both congratulations.
I keep saying this is my last year organizing the Safety Fair, and maybe I mean it. When we started the project four years ago we had no idea what it would grow into, and I have so many more commitments these days. Regardless, this year is something I am proud of.
Mamasquatch the Writer 
Leave a comment