Kiwanis hear program on weekend meals for kids
Monitor Staff Reports
GUN BARREL CITY–There’s a “dirty little secret” at every school district around Cedar Creek Lake – some students don’t get to eat between Friday’s lunch and the breakfast they get at school Monday morning.
“When we moved down here, I heard rumors about hunger at the school,” Tool area resident David Bullock told Cedar Creek Lake Kiwanis members Wednesday.
Bullock talked with Tool Elementary principal Bill Morgan, who told him some students tried to pack up extra food at lunch Friday to take home with them.
“He (Morgan) told me their behavior was predictable,” Bullock said. “They come in Monday morning and wolf down breakfast, and then they go through the (cafeteria) line again.

Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
David Bullock pulls out a jar of peanut butter, a staple of children's meals, from a food bag sent home with needy children. Bullock talked with Cedar Creek Lake Kiwanis members Wednesday about the program he oversees at Tool Elementary School, and challenged the club to consider sponsoring similar programs at other schools.

“Then they throw up, because your body won’t handle a bunch of food after not eating for a while,” Bullock added.
Bullock and his wife Donna came up with the idea of preparing a take-home bag of packaged food, enough to feed two children over the weekend.
The Bullocks’ home church, Cedar Creek United Methodist, partnered with Providence Baptist Church to provide funding for the food bags, and Brookshire’s of Seven Points provides the non-perishable food items.
“(Brookshire’s manager) Scott (Andrews) sells the food to us at cost (about $10 for each bag),” Bullock said.
Canned items have to be in pop-top containers, so kids can open them without a can opener, and the bags have to be light enough for a first-grader to lift and carry. Bag tops must be folded over and stapled, Bullock said.
Bullock and the church members collecting the food bring it to the school each Friday.
“We don’t ever see the children – we don’t want to,” Bullock said.
Morgan and the school nurse give the bags to the 15 or so students who need them before they board the bus, he explained.
“The bags are packed by the seniors at our church, and they love it,” Bullock added. There are two different lists of food, so the menu can be varied from week to week, he said.
“Here’s the shock – I’m not asking for your money,” he said. “What I need is your heart – because you have the very same problem going on at every school around the lake.”
Students worry about making it through the weekend every Friday, and then they’re sick after their binge each Monday, Bullock said.
“Friday and Monday are 40 percent of the week,” he pointed out. “How can you learn anything if you’re sick or worried 40 percent of the time?”
Bullock handed out a few copies of his guidelines, but noted, “If you have ideas, give me a call, because I’m making mistakes.”
The Kiwanis motto is “Changing the world, one child and one community at a time.”
“We may have found a way to change the world one child, and one community, at a time,” Bullock said. “When I checked out Kiwanis, I thought this was a natural (match).”
Club members were galvanized by Bullock’s presentation, and began talking about how such a program could be implemented. Bullock said he would provide copies of his guidelines to the club members.
“Folks, you can’t do this wrong,” he said.
For more information on the food bag project, contact Bullock at (469) 383-4318.
During the summer, Bullock, the school, city and Texas Department of Agriculture have teamed up in the Summer Nutrition Program to feed kids 18 and under a free meal between 11 a.m. and noon, Monday-Thursday at the Oran White Center, next to Tool City Hall.
No paperwork or registration is required. Food is served on a first-come, first-served basis. Meals may be eaten on site or taken to go, but a qualifying child must be present, and any school district or residential location may participate.
The program will continue through the month of July;. For more information, call Makenzie Blaser, (903) 432-3522.
In club news, members:
• witnessed Lt. Gov. Bobbie Hawkins of Athens officially install three new members – Gwynn Frosch (the new president-elect), Margaret Manning and Richard Siemens.
• agreed to start collecting aluminum can pull tabs through Labor Day to benefit the Ronald McDonald House, which provides a home for the families of seriously ill children.

Getting ready for disaster
First Responders talk preparation at seminar
By Kerry Yancey
Monitor Staff Writer
MABANK–Being prepared is a Boy Scout’s motto, but it also makes good sense for homeowners and business owners who might face a disaster one day.
“‘It won’t happen to me.’ How can we change the mindset of those communities?” Kaufman County Emergency Management intern Kyle Landua asked a small group of First Responders June 9.

Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
Kaufman County Emergency Management intern Kyle Landua speaks to a group of First Responders during an “Emergency Management 101” seminar at the Comfort Suites hotel in Mabank June 9.

“As First Responders, that’s the biggest problem we face – nobody’s worried about it,” Landua added during a special seminar, “Emergency Management 101,” at Mabank’s Comfort Suites hotel.
“We’ve got to open the community’s eyes,” he said. “That’s the question – how do we do that?”
Kaufman County will be developing a county-wide emergency preparedness plan, county emergency management coordinator Steve Howie told the group.
Part of the plan is alerting homeowners about funding available to pay for improvements, Howie said.
The North Texas Council of Governments will pay half (up to $3,000) of the costs of a project, such as the construction of a “safe room,” Howie said.
“That money is there,” he added. “We’ve just got to get in there and access it.”
Everyone in the Cedar Creek Lake area faces a chance of being affected by a natural disaster, usually in the form of a major storm or tornado.
There’s also the chance for wildfire (a particular danger this hot and dry summer) and even a hurricane – there have been a couple of hurricanes brush the edges of the lake area within the past 10 years.
Being prepared is a cycle – planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating and taking corrective action – before starting over with planning, Howie pointed out.
“Every company needs to educate its employees about to implement this (county) plan, because these things (tornadoes, fires) are going to happen,” he said. “Having a plan helps.”
Howie admitted no amount of planning could adequately prepare a community for the almost unbelievable damage and death resulting from the F5 tornado that destroyed much of Joplin, Mo., recently.
In a situation such as Joplin, “the city has to be triaged,” Howie said.
Triage is a system designed to produce the greatest benefit for battlefield casualties by providing treatment for those who might survive with proper treatment, and withholding care for those who have little to no chance of survival, or those who will survive without treatment.
“Say you spend two hours to help one guy, where two blocks over, you have a school down on top of 300 kids,” Howie said. “That (triage) is not something you want to do, but (you) have to know where to send your resources first.”
In addition, every homeowner and every business owner should have emergency action plans, including an evacuation plan, he recommended.
Homeowners should consider putting together a get-and-go bag, a suitcase containing a change of clothing and needed medications, packed and ready to pick up on the way out of the house.
“First, plan, then prepare, then practice that plan,” Howie said. “In fire safety, you learn to have a designated place to meet (outside the home), and how to get information to others.”
Suggestions on how to form a fire safety or storm safety plan can be reviewed at www.texasprepares.org, Howie said.
“That website can help you prepare a plan yourself, and you can print it off with marks on where to fold it, so it will fit in your wallet,” he pointed out. “You definitely can’t over-prepare.”
Landua, an emergency management senior at the University of North Texas, said Mabank also might consider forming Community Emergency Response Teams, or CERTs.
“It’s basically neighbors helping neighbors,” he explained. “If you have a good base set up, you’ll have CERT members in most areas of the community.”
To become a CERT member, volunteers undergo training in basic first aid, light search and rescue, and psychological training to enable them to be responsible and useful during a disaster.
CERT equipment bags, which also can be paid for through NTCOG funding, contain items that normally would be useful in an emergency situation, such as multi-tools, first aid kits, duct tape and other items.
Most CERT trainees typically add items to their bags as they gain experience, Landua said.
“I can tell you that you don’t have enough First Responders to take care of something like Joplin,” Howie said. “The rule is, ‘the first 72 hours, you’re on your own.’”
To be ready, homeowners (and owners of larger businesses) probably should maintain a stash of bottled water and non-perishable food, enough to last for three or four days, along with batteries and other recommended items, Howie said.
“Just getting these things ready for your family will go a long ways,” he said. “You knowing your family is taken care of will allow you to do what you need to do.”