Website Review – Do 1 Thing

January 21st, 2010 · No Comments

Welcome back!

Today I visited Dad’s local Senior Center and enjoyed a surprisingly delicious luncheon and visited with longtime friends of my parents. During my visit, I picked up an interesting 2010 calendar. The calendar was produced by the Do1Thing website (link below), and opened my eyes to an interesting concept.

When I visited the site this afternoon, I found the website was founded by an award-winning group of people who came together with a mission. They used their storytelling power to shine a light on the plight of our most vulnerable children and teens.

Founded in 2005, they helped launch the Heart Gallery of New Jersey by donating their time and talent to shoot 346 portraits of foster children who were eligible to be adopted. Through their efforts, over 150 have now found homes.

Expanded program

From what I could see of the calendar, the do1thing website has expanded the concept to include other areas of concern. This particular calendar focuses on ”a program to help individuals and families take small, manageable steps towards personally preparing for an emergency or disaster. ”

Each month of the year, the calendar focuses on an aspect of preparedness that an individual or family can take in order to prepare themselves or their household in case of an emergency. For instance, January 2010 calendar page asks the question, “What is important?” and includes the title “Assess Your Risk.”

Take three steps forward

Each month not only includes a particular focus, but offers three steps toward meeting that goal. For January, the steps include:

Conduct a family risk assessment
Set up a support network with friends and family to meet needs during a disaster
Determine what your insurance needs are (including flood) by consulting with an insurance agent.

All three are important steps toward assessing a family’s risk.

February focuses on emergency water supply, March discusses shelter, April stresses emergency food supply, and so forth through the rest of the year. At the end of the calendar portion is a 2011 calendar and a full page of blank lines for emergency contact numbers.

Pay attention to the details

One of the most important aspects of this calendar is the second half. Each goal highlighted throughout the year is covered in more detail. Each topic is covered over two full pages of ideas and instructions in order for families to be well prepared for any emergency. Several topics include detailed instruction for caregivers, which would help many of us concerned with elder care.

You can go to the www.do1thing.uswebsite and take a look around for further information about this important topic. It appears that a site search of the url will bring up two links: one is for the preparedness site and the other for the homeless children. The link on this site is for the preparedness information. We never know when an emergency will occur and having this detail information at hand, and the steps to help us prepare, is invaluable and could save the life of someone we love.