Local News

Map Your Neighborhood Coming to Pateros

Gene Dowers, Executive Director, PBCRC

Apr 17, 2018

What’s going to happen when the next “big one” comes? Another big fire or the earthquake that everybody talks about. Or a blizzard or the power going out. Who’s going to take care of us? There’s just not enough first-responders to be everywhere at once. So, we have to take care of ourselves. And we need to take care of each other.

The “Map Your Neighborhood” disaster preparedness program comes to Pateros and Brewster in late April. Created by Dr. LuAn Johnson of the Washington State Emergency Management Division over 20 years ago, “MYN” has spread across the country. The International Association of Emergency Managers recognized it with the “Public Awareness Award” in 2009. It is a voluntary, neighbor-helping-neighbor program. Designed to take care of special needs and make use of special skills, the aim is to keep everyone in sight all right.

The Pateros-Brewster Community Resource Center will run it. The Resource Center is a privately-funded 501c3 non-profit formed after the fires of 2014. The founders saw a need for a focal point in our communities to respond to urgent needs of all kinds.

“Map Your Neighborhood” gives us a chance to get ahead of the next challenge. The more people that band together, the better oﬀ we’ll be. We’ll cover the area of the Pateros and Brewster School Districts. People can get involved as much or as little as they like. Our focus is to take care of folks who aren’t completely self-suﬃcient and there really aren’t many that are. Our first big task is to find neighborhood coordinators to sponsor the first neighborhood meetings.”

Please find out more about “Map Your Neighborhood”:

Pateros PAC meeting, Pateros School Library, 6:00 p.m., April 25,

Pateros Fire Hall meeting room, after “Fire Wise Communities”, 6:00 p.m., April 27.

Brewster School Library, 7:00 p.m., May 2

Brewster Ambulance Hall meeting room, 6:00 p.m., May 4

at the PBCRC oﬃce in the Pateros Mall (next to the bakery) or call Gene Dowers at the PBCRC at 923-7460.

“Map Your Neighborhood” funding provided by a grant from the Unmet Needs Roundtable to the Pateros-Brewster Long-Term Recovery Group. The “MYN” team is the staﬀ and volunteers of the Pateros-Brewster Community Resource Center.