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Community Corner

Build a Disaster Kit with Your Family & Afterward Enjoy a Free Concert!

Are You Good & Ready?

Build a Disaster Kit to Prepare Your Family

The Allstate Foundation, Points of Light Foundation, and the Long Island Volunteer Center, an affiliate of HandsOn Network, invite Long Island residents to prepare for catastrophe at a kit building event on August 17, 2013, at Eisenhower Park’s Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre from 5 to 7 p.m.  Following this community service event will be a free concert sponsored by Nassau County featuring Huey Lewis and The News at 7 p.m.

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Why is this kit building event important in preparation for a disaster?


Certainly hurricanes, tornadoes and wild fires are disasters, but disasters also include events like extended power blackouts, house fires or floods. Disasters can happen anytime, anywhere, with little or no warning, but it is possible to be prepared for them. Research from the Federal Emergency Management Agency found that 85 percent of Americans are not prepared for potential disasters, which inspired The Allstate Foundation and Points of Light to bring Good & Ready, an online and on-the-ground emergency preparedness program, to Long Island to help families and the community prepare for disasters.

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At the community service event on August 17 at Eisenhower Park’s Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre, residents will assemble 400 disaster preparedness kits to take home for their families. While supplies last, the kits will include a hand-crank flashlight, water bottle, dust mask, garbage bags and hand sanitizing wipes, among other items.


“This Good & Ready event is about helping people be more prepared for life’s uncertainties,” according to Diana O’Neill, Executive Director, Long Island Volunteer Center. “Everyone on Long Island can take simple steps to get prepared for a disaster, including taking a few minutes to build a kit that could be invaluable in the case of an emergency.”


Additional area residents who come to the event also will receive disaster preparedness bags with helpful information on how to build their own disaster kits at home.


Good & Ready is supported by The Allstate Foundation and Points of Light Foundation, working in partnership with Ready.gov, the American Red Cross and the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes. The Allstate Foundation’s involvement in the program is part of its new SaferLivesSM program, which provides important safety information to help people be aware of the risks in their lives and protect themselves and their loved ones.

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