Two Takoma Park Emergency Preparedness PSAs Near Completion

Two public service announcements providing information on different aspects of emergency preparedness are nearing completion and will be broadcast on the Takoma Park City TV, say those involved with the production.

The message of one PSA is aimed at seniors, said Wolfgang Mergner, the former chairman of Takoma Park’s Emergency Preparedness Committee, who wrote the original scripts both PSAs were based on. The PSA for seniors is to let them know that in order to be safe in an emergency, they have to have made connections with neighbors, he said. The script tells the story of a senior woman who finds herself alone during an emergency without food (her refrigerator is empty), and she asks herself what she should do, Mergner said. However, neighbors arrive at her home with food.

The second PSA is aimed at pet owners, Mergner said. It provides a message that many people do not know. That message is, if a pet dog or cat is lost during an emergency and emergency personnel find the animal, the person claiming the animal has to show that the pet actually belongs to the pet owner, he said. The pet owners have to provide a photograph of the dog or cat, he said.

“I wrote the scripts, but they were changed to fit the medium of television,” said Mergner, who added that Takoma Park City TV oversaw the shooting of the PSAs. “The shooting is finished. What’s coming next is to put it together on the computer, and then we have to make a voice-over to explain the message."

The person lending her voice to the PSAs is Jennifer Kurtinitis, a member of the Emergency Preparedness Committee.

“We’ve been looking for different ways we can reach out to the community and engage them to be prepared for a disaster,” she said.

Kurtinitis said she was selected for the voice-overs almost by accident.

“It just kind of happened that way,” she said. “We were discussing the PSAs during an Emergency Preparedness Committee meeting, and Wolfgang said he was looking for someone for the voice-over, and I volunteered.”

Kay Daniels-Cohen, a member of the Emergency Preparedness Committee, said the Emergency Preparedness Committee is “a driver for making sure the information gets out to the community.” The latest PSAs are the second and third PSAs produced (a PSA produced in 2010 is about the nine items needed in a home during an emergency), and they are messages that need to be spread.

In many ways, Takoma Park “looks like we’re a cohesive community,” but “checking on your neighbor, sometimes we need to remind people that’s an important thing to do,” she said.

In addition, Daniels-Cohen, who has a cat, said she was not aware of the pet identification requirement.

“I didn’t realize in order for an official to turn a lost animal over to me, that I need identification showing it is really my cat,” she said. “It’s not enough that an animal will run up and hug and kiss the owner. Pet owners also need a photo of their animal."

In addition to Takoma Park City TV, the PSAs will be made available to Montgomery Community Television, Mergner said.