Cadillac Prepares Meet Up and Training

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MaterielGeneral

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Near Cadillac, MI
Cadillac Prepares

Informal peer led training is being organized on home preparedness for anyone who may have interest about natural and man made disasters. Meetings will take place at a public location once to eventually maybe twice a month an hour or two at a time. One instructor will be giving the classes initially but once comfort levels have been met then others will be welcome to give classes. Class material must be accurate and instructors will have to provide sources of subject matter information. We will learn from our strengths and weakness together.

One of the benefits of being prepared is that if an emergency happens first responders will have less high demand emergency calls to make and you and your family will not have to rely on any outside help.

One of the goals of having the class is for group members to have the ability to network and hopefully develop friendships. Classes will be 1 to 2 hours long and initially once a month on Saturday. Below are some of the subjects that will be covered in no particular order. It will basically be what direction the group wants to go in.

http://www.michigan.gov/michiganprepares Michigan labels its natural threats as disease outbreaks, earthquakes, extreme heat, floods, thunderstorms, tornadoes, wildfires and winter weather. What is not labeled is economic or social breakdown, EMP/solar flare, nuclear war or nuclear power plant accidents.

We will be discussing in this group the subjects air, shelter, water, food, medical and security requirements with the addition of a few other subjects like Homesteading, Bushcraft, Nuclear Biological and Chemical procedures.

All attendees will be given a large electronic library on a DVD disk. Classes will be prepared from this library and information from the FEMA website https://www.ready.gov/ and other sources as necessary.

A location to do this training at is needed. Some place that may have a conference room or class room. Anyone interested in donating use of a room in a public setting should email at the below address. Two locations has been already found. Still seeking a better location that has a white or black board and/or could facilitate projector.

Please spread the word on social media, email friends/family. Please email to be notified for any upcoming training events and locations at: [email protected] Once a definite location has been found and we have enough people for a class we will begin. Look up the group on Facebook under the same name Cadillac Prepares. If you want more information on the library then email. It is to much information for this post. Thank You

Future Class Subjects

We will begin discussing in this group the basics that you should start with like air, shelter, water, food, medical and security requirements .

Without air, you can die in 3 minutes. Air and respiratory protection requirements could be fire/smoke/ carbon monoxide alarms, Gas masks and face masks because of pandemics, nuclear war or power plant accidents. Did you know that Michigan is surrounded by Nuclear plants? http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/ There is quite a few plants in Wisconsin that if something were to happen we could be in trouble. Here is a wind map that could possibly show you the air currents that could carry fallout to Michigan http://hint.fm/wind/ My guess is that if this were to happen the safety area would be for us in the Cadillac area is to travel to the upper peninsula. The health department issues Potassium Iodate KIO3 to help protect your thyroid from radioactive iodine to those that live or work near a nuclear power plant only. You can buy it online from various vendors.

Shelter can be anything to get you out of the elements, in acclimate weather death can result rapidly from hypothermia and hyperthermia: If you were to loose power how would you stay warm in the winter or cool in the summer? Some may have a generator but do you have back up fuel. Do you know what type of fuel to use and how to properly store it? Do you have contingency plans. We will also learn about bushcraft shelter skills which will benefit you if you become a lost hiker or fill in the blank.

You can only live 3 days without water: If you loose power how will you obtain water? If you drink unfiltered or unsanitized water from surface water like lakes or rivers you will get sick. Do you know how to sanitize or filter surface water? What about long term water storage?

Without food you can only live two weeks: If something were happen with the trucking industry, grocery stores are only 3 days from being empty. We will discuss long term, short term food storage. What to store, how much to store, different preserving methods such as canning and dehydrating, bushcraft skills will also be discussed.

Medical care: If there were a serious societal breakdown how would you get medical care for a love one? You need to have some medical training. You need to have first aid supplies on hand. We will learn basic first aid to include evaluate a casualty, bandaging, splinting a fracture, burns and treating for shock, CPR/Rescue breathing, trauma care, field sanitation and preventive measures, pandemic/isolation/sick rooms.

Security: What would you do if your child is crying because they are starving? Then take that same answer and think about John Doe down the road that does not care about you and yours just what you have. You need to have an ability to protect yourself and your family. We will also look at civil unrest and active shooters, detaining and retraining a person.

Evacuation Bags: Bug Out Bags/Get Home Bags/INCH Bags styles and content

Bushcraft: Outdoor survival skills.

NBC: Information for nuclear, biological and chemical incidents, how to prepare, react to and decontaminate from them.

EMP/Coronal Mass Ejection/Solar Flare: Can and will destroy modern electronics. We will discuss ways to protect your electronics.

Alternative Energy: Generator, solar and other energy sources. Operation and safety.

Homesteading: Home steading is really about the way a lot of people in the area live their lives and care of animals like chickens, goats, pigs and cattle.

Library: Discussion of various ways to have a library and what subjects to have hard copies on and electronic books. All attendees will be given an electronic library on a DVD disk.

Don't forget email [email protected] or look us up on Facebook. Please share and feel free to download and share the information documents.
 

Attachments

  • CadillacPrepares Flyer.pdf
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  • Electronic Library.pdf
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  • Future Class Subjects.pdf
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Sounds interesting. Unfortunately a 4h ride.

Weather is turning nice now. Come up Friday. Camp out in State land (free) do the class/meet up and then go home Sunday. Make an adventure out of it. I know a few nice places in state land and a good spot in federal land. Or you can puss out and go to a campground, LOL. The price of those you can almost pay for a motel room. Since you said it would be a 4 hour ride I am going to guess south eastern Michigan. When I started out active duty national guard I had to start in Monroe and then I got a new position in Ypsilanti and then I finally got out of the city to Alma when I told em I was going to resign because I couldn't take the city living anymore.
 
Facebook deleted Cadillac Prepares so I had to create a group page with the same name Cadillac Prepares. If anyone has a problem finding it then look up Francis Marion it is part of that profile. If you want to know who Francis Marion (Swamp Fox) is then do a search. It will be in the Revolutionary War time period, LOL. He is kind of the father of American Guerrilla Warfare, LOL. One of my hero's.
 
If you want to know who Francis Marion (Swamp Fox) is then do a search. It will be in the Revolutionary War time period, LOL. He is kind of the father of American Guerrilla Warfare, LOL. One of my hero's.

May be before your time (I remember it), but there was a TV show about him on Disney from 1959-1961.
Theme song:
Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox, tail on his hat...
Nobody knows where the Swamp Fox at;
Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox, hiding in the glen,
He'll ride away to fight again.
Got no money, got no beds,
got no roof above our heads;
got no shelter when it rains,
All we've got is Yankee brains!
 
OK, it is confirmed. May 20th @ 2pm at Big Boy restaurant the south side of Cadillac, 1310 S Mitchell St, Cadillac, MI 49601. :vs_rocking_banana: I am going to attach a flyer. Download it and share please. If anybody sees any errors or thinks there is a better way of wording something in it then please private message me. I would be interested in hearing what you have to say.
 

Attachments

  • Brochure V1.pdf
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  • quarter sheet.pdf
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I spoke to a reporter at the local newspaper a couple of days ago and gave him the jist of the classes. I told him that the term prepper has been polluted by the mainstream media and shows like Doomsday Preppers and to please not refer to the class as preppers. I told him that while the show may have been amusing to a degree that we think the people on the show are idiots and the show was overall stupid.

I don't remember exactly how he worded it but basically why should people prepare? And I told him you have insurance on your car and house, why not have insurance for your families welfare and the ability to feed them in an emergency. He liked it. He said its true.
He said give him about a week and the story should run.

Yesterday I went around town dropping off flyers to any place I knew had a bulletin board. I checked at a printing company to get an estimate and its cheaper to do it myself at home with HP ink.

Anybody have any suggestions where I can drop off flyers. Maybe I missed some locations.
 
After the meeting with the reporter we had exchanged a couple emails and he wanted to use my full name in the story instead of an alias or just my first name. He wasn't really getting the meaning about security so I told him a story. The following is my last email to the reporter.

“I understand where you are coming from (using name). You mentioned writing it as a press release angle, is it possible to do that? I just don't want my real name used(first and last). Because of mainstream media making it out that anybody in the preparedness hobby, lifestyle or what ever is just made out to be weird, not to mention the security aspect.

This is why I take security so serious. When I was a correction officer and a member of the emergency response team I fought a lot. Gang members actually put a hit on my life and another C/O's life. After I left corrections and went active duty national guard I was stationed in *Censored* at the armory there. I was with a friend at the mall on the south side of Detroit. We were in a clothing store and I saw a black guy with some male and female friends. He looked very familiar to me but could not place him. By the look on his face I could tell he was experiencing the same thing. I minute later I remembered him from the prison. He was a gang member that I had done many use of force incidents with. Right about that time his look of puzzlement turned into a scowl and he began to talk to his male friends and pointed in my direction. I told my friend that we had to go right F'ing now, she was like why. I told her I would tell her in a minute and grabbed her arm and pulled her to the exit. As we were walking in the direction of the exit I told her who he was and my history with him. She had that look of really, I told her didn't care if she believed me or not but we were leaving.

Actually, I have had another run in at the Pines parking lot (local night club) when I was still a correction officer. I was with other guardsman and a couple of correction officers and my friend that I told you about at our meeting was with me. We saw an inmate that had been recently released but that was a pretty friendly encounter.

I hope you understand where I am coming from now from the security aspect. Shit happens and I don't really want to take chances, paranoid? Maybe but is it worth the risk?

Sorry I did not respond sooner, I got busy and could not get on my computer much.

I guess if it comes right down to it, give up my name or scrap the story then I am really sorry but I guess we would have to scrap the story. If the story gets scrapped then I hope the editor will still let me use the community calendar. I guess this is going to suck. Not just for me but for the community as a whole.”

I thought the story ended up not running because the reporter wanted to use my full name in the story but I checked my email yesterday and received an email from the editor saying they were working out the bugs and will be running it soon. He also said the event was on the community calendar and I checked verifying it was. Cool beans.


The first day of the meeting I am going to tell everyone in attendance to just use first name only or an alias and then give them a rough explanation of COMSEC.

Here is the link to the facebook page which isnt much but it helps. Like, share and join.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/198150694024879/
 
I checked the papers website the story ran May 16. May 17 I was able to find one retailer that had the paper so I bought one. I was surprised but very happy the story was on the front page. I copied it so here it is.

New group aims to teach people life-saving skills in case of emergency
By Nick Green
CADILLAC — A new group hopes to prepare people for the unexpected and teach some life skills along the way.
Cadillac Prepares will hold its first meeting from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 20, in the Cadillac Big Boy's meeting room.
A group spokesperson said there are three things that people must have to survive — air, water and food. A person can live three minutes without air, three days without water and three weeks without food, he continued.
The group dislikes the term "preppers" and thinks it has become somewhat derogative when used by media outlets and television — oftentimes associating the word with people who are obsessive or appear mentally unstable.
The first class will cover common topics related to being prepared, and the group will present statistics that relay why people should be prepared for anything.
Trauma care, basic first aid, homesteading and food and water preperation are among some of the topics that will be discussed. These skills can help people in many situations, the group spokesperson added.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends people be prepared for anything.
"The importance of preparing ourselves for disasters is universal," said FEMA Director Marci Roth. "Emergencies can happen anywhere — at home or at work — and everyone must take action to prepare for emergencies in case something unexpected happens."
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, Roth continues.
"What I've learned from (work) experience is that everyone must be prepared to be their own "emergency manager." When disaster strikes, you may have to be able to survive on your own for 72 hours or more without access to power, food, or transportation," Roth said. "You also should think about your own situation and what additional needs you might have."
Cadillac Prepares' direction will be dependent on what people need or want from the group. While is not certain that a set-in-stone event schedule will be created — it will depend on what people bring up at the first meeting and see as their preparation needs.
People who attend should leave politics and religion out of the meeting's discussion. Those who wish to engage in those conversations can do so during break times, the group's spokesperson said.
Any questions related to the group or the first meeting can be directed to [email protected].

Two people came because of the newspaper story. The other guy saw the Cadillac Prepares Facebook group.

The meeting went well yesterday. Including myself there were only 4 people. 3 male military veterans and a single mom military brat. All military related, I see some kind of trend forming. Everyone was pleasant and had positive things to say. We didn't get to heavy into anything, just intros, normal time statistics from the CDC and then did a show and tell on a few things like the CAT tourniquet and an IFAK.

June 17th is the next 3rd Saturday. Meeting will be 2-4pm and once the classes are decided upon then I will post that. I am going to push for food or water related for one class and medical for the other. I will send an email out later on requesting opinions.
 
Now we are at the point that we will start having our discussions and classes its up to you guys who are coming to the meet up to pick the subjects. I want to create a training calendar and get it published. Please email with what you want to learn about [email protected].

If you want to teach a class then let me know ASAP. If you are going to teach a class then you must: Identify individual training requirements. Plan the training. Gather the training references and materials. Your reference materials must be from a reputable source. If you are going to have handouts and if you do not want to print them off then email the handout to me and I will forward BCC to everyone on the distribution list and they can print off their own handout.

Possible Class Subjects

While we are having our meetings at Big Boy I would like to spend one hour+/- on one subject and then the other hour on another subject because of our allotted time. If we are away from the restaurant meeting room then class time periods can be as long as we want and are really up to the group.

Air: Without air, you can die in 3 minutes. Air and respiratory protection requirements could be fire/smoke/ carbon monoxide alarms, Because of pandemics, nuclear war or power plant accidents gas masks, N95 and medical face masks could be used.

Shelter: Shelter can be anything to get you out of the elements(house, RV, tents, bushcraft, sleeping bags), in acclimate weather death can result rapidly from hypothermia and hyperthermia: If you were to loose power how would you stay warm in the winter or cool in the summer? Do you have contingency plans?

Water: You can only live 3 days without water: If you loose power how will you obtain water (historically villages and homesteads were located near a water source)? If you drink unfiltered or unsanitized water from surface water like lakes or rivers you will get sick. Do you know how to sanitize or filter water using bleach, Calcium Hypochlorite, iodine? What about long term water storage? Different water filters and how they work.

Food: Without food you can only live two weeks: If something were happen with the trucking industry, grocery stores are only 3 days from being empty. During an emergency stores are emptied almost immediately. We will discuss long term, short term food storage. What to store, how much to store, different preserving methods such as canning and dehydrating, Mylar bags/oxygen absorber and 5 gallon buckets also bushcraft skills will also be discussed.

Medical care:If there were a serious societal breakdown how would you get medical care for a love one? Do you have training or first aid supplies on hand? We will start at the lowest level needed to meet individual member needs. It will kind of go like this. Not necessarily in mandatory order.
Evaluate a Casualty: Scene safety, casualty inspection, vital signs
Airway: CPR/Rescue Breathing
Bleeding: bandaging, tourniquets, sucking chest wounds, abdominal, gun shot
Treating for Shock
Fractures
Burns
Transportation Procedures: Hand carrying, litters, drags
Climatic Injuries
Bites & Stings
Dental the most forgotten medical preparation: Tools for pulling teeth, repair kits, pain relievers
First Aid for Psychological Reactions
Field Sanitation and Preventive Measures: food/water, waste disposal(latrines/outhouse), garbage disposal, corpse disposal, insect prevention mosquito, fleas, lice, ticks, Rodents like mice and rats,
Pandemic/Isolation/Sick Rooms
Medical Kits, supplies & Instruments: containers for your medical kit, how in depth do you want your kit to be will depend on your supplies assorted bandages, trauma dressings, chest seals, Sam Splint/elastic wraps, Basic evaluation equipment are as follows but not limited to thermometers, sphygmomanometer, stethoscope, Otoscope.

Security: What would you do if your child is crying because they are starving or are sick? Then take that same answer and think about John Doe down the road that does not care about you and yours just what you have and what they can take.

We can discuss preventive measures to help improve your home now and stuff to defend your home later during a SHTF or without rule of law (WROL) like video cameras/game cameras, motion detecting lights, motion detecting alerts and alarms, fences and gates, barbed or razor wire, caltrops, perimeter alarms like chemlight/glow stick or 12ga alarm(blanks, flares, teargas rounds).
We can discuss firearms, calibers and different uses.
Chemical agents: Personal teargas, bear spray proper deployment
Building clearing techniques so that you can properly defend your home.
Detaining and restraining a person in your home(home defense). I can show how to properly place someone into restraints and then do a pat down/frisk search. If anyone would be interested then I can show different blocks, strikes and takedowns.
We will also look at civil unrest and active shooters.

There are two theories land mine instant self triggered and claymore takes a human to pull the trigger. If someone wanted more information for use in a WROL time period then we could have a discussion. freedom of speech is legal and that is as far as it will go just discussion.

Evacuation Bags: Bug Out Bags/Get Home Bags/INCH Bags styles and content. This is always a fun subject to discuss. It will give everyone a chance to do a show and tell. Maybe do a bug out camp out when or if we were to do the bushcraft stuff or we could do it in the back parking lot of Big Boy.

Bushcraft: We should also learn about bushcraft skills which will benefit you if you become a lost hiker or fill in the blank. Great skill for children. I propose we go to Cadillac West to the federal public land to practice bushcraft subjects or if enough wanted to make a camping trip out of it there are good locations South West of Cadillac in the Manistee National Forest and West of Manton near the Manistee River on state land. This would make a really good family learning event and it will be fun. Bushcraft subjects could be shelter building, food procurement(is there anyone skilled in identifying wild edible plants?), water purifying, trap building.

NBC: Information for nuclear, biological and chemical incidents, how to prepare, react to and decontaminate from them.
Did you know that Michigan is surrounded by Nuclear plants? http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/ There is a few plants in East Wisconsin and Illinois(near Chicago) that if something were to happen we could be in trouble. Here is a wind map that could possibly show you the air currents that could carry fallout to Michigan http://hint.fm/wind/ . The health department issues Potassium Iodate KIO3 to help protect your thyroid from radioactive iodine to those that live or work near a nuclear power plant only. Everyone else must purchase it yourself. You can buy it online and it is very affordable. Most people do not even know about it(they don't advertise it). When I first went active duty national guard I was located at the Monroe Armory. They have a nuclear power plant there. I never heard anything about safety or protective measures for the public the couple of years I was there.

EMP/Coronal Mass Ejection/Solar Flare: While it is relatively safe for humans it only effects electronics. It can and will destroy modern electronics. We will discuss ways to protect your electronics. It is predicted that if the United States were to be hit by an EMP our electrical grid and all sensitive electronics unless protected will be destroyed. Because of our computer age most vehicles will no longer function. 90% of US citizens in the first year of the attack will die due to starvation or disease.

Alternative Energy: Generator, solar and other energy sources. Building your own system, operation and safety. Some people may have a generator but do you have back up fuel to run it. Do you know what type of fuel to use(ethanol free) and how to properly store it?

Alternative Cooking Methods: For many your stove may no longer work. Besides the lack of fuel or electricity to run it many stoves are computerized where you need electicity to turn it on or if an EMP were to happen it will fry it. We can discuss cooking on wood stoves, propane stoves, rocket stoves, BBQ grills, cooking over wood, smoking, sun oven. Setting up a cooking station.

Homesteading: Home steading is really a rural lifestyle. The way a lot of people in our area live their lives: Animal husbandry, care of animals like chickens, goats, pigs and cattle, gardening and canning/dehydrating(preserving).

Library: Discussion of various ways to have a library and what subjects to have hard copies on and electronic books. All attendees will be given an electronic library on a DVD disk.

Next meeting is June 17 @ 2pm at Big Boy, South end of Cadillac, MI
 
I'm just now getting moved to Leroy area setting up a homestead, and this group seems interesting as it wouldn't be a horrible drive. How have the turnouts been at the meets?
 
I'm just now getting moved to Leroy area setting up a homestead, and this group seems interesting as it wouldn't be a horrible drive. How have the turnouts been at the meets?
It's low but slowly growing. I was living in the LeRoy area(near Rose Lake) but moved near Cadillac last summer. We have July's meeting yet (3rd Saturday).

August I am suggesting a campout on federal land near a lake between Tustin and Cadillac. Do some Bushcraft and other training.

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fantastic. Put in a request to join your fb group. Hopefully I can make the upcoming meeting.
 
Our next meeting date is July 15, 2pm at the meeting room at Big Boy Restaurant.

The first hour we will have a home defense class on pat down/frisk and handcuffing an intruder and if time allows some basic home defense techniques for firearms.

2nd hour we will start having first aid classes.

Next month will be a campout and we will try out bushcraft skills and other classes.
 
Did this group die out? I have property in leroy. We can meet weekly or whatever. No venue expense. Have a fire drink a beer and share some thoughts and stories. Would be nice to get a solid community of like individuals sharing experience.
 
Did this group die out? I have property in leroy. We can meet weekly or whatever. No venue expense. Have a fire drink a beer and share some thoughts and stories. Would be nice to get a solid community of like individuals sharing experience.
Yeah it basically did die out, lack of commitment. I'm always game for a get together, do training, camping etc. Oh, beer is always good.

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