In an effort to prepare families and communities for the start of, what has been described as, a bumper 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and other stakeholders had dubbed the month of May as National Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Month.
And as part of the activities, the NDPPM Committee challenged citizens to use their creative juices to produce videos as part of the Home Evacuation Challenge and Spoken Word Competitions.
Chief Executive Officer of the ODPM, Retired Major General Rodney Smart, addressing the prize giving ceremony on Friday, noted the timeliness and foresight of the competition and hoped the lessons learned had some impact.
In the Evacuation Challenge, Miguella Simon took the top prize with her creative video which depicted what her family would do in the event of a fire at home.
In the Spoken Word Category, 12-17 age group, Thais Farley took the first prize, while Joel Phillip topped the over 18 age group.
One of the youngest competitors, six year old Britan Chickoree, was given a special prize for his video submission.
The theme for the 2021 NDPPM was “Disaster Preparedness Starts With You. Let’s Prepare Together!”