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Community Service and the |
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Community service has been a mainstay of American life since the Minute Men of Lexington and Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys organized themselves to protect our freedoms and liberties in the pre-Revolution days of our republic. |
| Today the country is home to countless community service organizations, including Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, The Salvation Army, the United Way, and Volunteers of America, to name but a modest few. |
| Add to these groups the countless paid and volunteer law enforcement, fire, rescue, and first aid organizations across the nation and one starts to get a sense of the community spirit that has made America the great nation that it has become. |
| Here in our own town we are proud to add the name of the Damascus Emergency Preparedness Team to the long roster of names dedicated to community service. |
| Unlike some organizations, however, we would like to hope that our services will never be needed. |
| But unfortunately, emergencies and disasters are inevitable and impossible to predict; they can only be anticipated and prepared for, and then coped with. And when they do occur, they must be acted upon immediately with precision, speed and efficiency to minimize their consequences. To achieve such response requires an unceasing dedication to achieving a state of readiness that can be called into play upon a moment’s notice. To maintain such readiness on a day-in, day-out basis reflects a special kind of community service that cannot be bought and never be sold. |
| For more information, please contact DEPT president Paul Laing at plaing56@verizon.net |
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