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EMU receives $968,632 Homeland Security grant to train Michigan high school students to be first responders

Eastern Michigan University's Center for Regional and National Security (CeRNS) has been given $968,632 by the Department of Homeland Security to train Michigan high school students to be first responders in an emergency.

"This is the largest lump sum grant that CeRNS has received," said Tony Martin, administrative director of CeRNS.

"These training programs will raise substantially the ability of our first responders, public officials and citizens to meet the challenges we face as a nation to prevent, respond and recover from terrorist events and natural disasters," said Matt A. Mayer, acting executive director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness.

FIRST RESPONSE: (from left) Eastern Michigan
University students Nora Gomez and Nicole Miller
practice CPR on a dummy while receiving
instructions from EMU student Eboni Jenkins and
Tony Martin, administrative director of EMU's Center
for Regional and National Security (CeRNS)during
training in fall 2004. The center recently received a
$968,632 grant from the Department of Homeland
Security to train Michigan high school students to
be first responders in an emergency. The center
previously trained Milan High School students to be
first responders.

EMU's grant is part of a $30 million competitive package that was awarded to 15 organizations for training initiatives. More than 265 organizations applied for the grants.

"This is a direct result of our pilot program at Milan High School," said Gerald "Skip" Lawver, who helped establish CeRNS at EMU. "School Superintendent Dennis M. McComb, Principal Ron Reed, Assistant Principal Leanna Soltis, School Liaison Officer Mike Couture, the Milan School Board and students at Milan bought into the concept and made it work."

Milan's program, called Teen CERT, began last year and was supported by Gary Zulinski from Michigan Citizens Corps, which provided the seed money for the pilot project.