Saturday, July 23rd, 2005
10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Members of RBCERTAA were contacted several months ago by Mr. George Santulli, Producer and Director with the U.S. State Department (under the Department of Homeland Security) regarding our disaster preparedness training programs. Specifically, he expressed interest in bringing a Jakarta, Indonesia TV film crew (selected from over 250 international foreign embassy applications) to attend and film our graduation training drill as part of a “sponsorship” program whereby the U.S. provides grants to educate other countries susceptible to environmental disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, etc. The State Department accepts approximately 60 applications per year which results in allowing a handful of international journalists to research, film and document our training techniques that will be used during their local media coverage when a similar disaster strikes in or near their country. Complimentary copies of their video footage will also be provided to the RBFD and RBCERTAA for utilization in educational and/or promotional videos. RBCERTAA is the only Southern California CERT organization that has been contacted to participate in this unique event. We are privileged and honored to have this opportunity!

Mr. Santulli is a senior official at the White House who travels with President Bush on all overseas trips. Thanks to his initial inquiry and follow-up by RBCERTAA Board members and the RBFD, we have been afforded an incredible opportunity that will provide our organization and the RBFD with both national and international media exposure and recognition!

The RBFD authorized the “sharing” of our CERT training manuals and copies were sent to Mr. Santulli for distribution to the Indonesian film team. He and his team are excited about attending and documenting our training drill and they’ve have been extremely cooperative in providing personal and professional information to RBCERTAA and the RBFD. From here, the team will travel to Hawaii for a 2-week trip studying Tsunami research.