Ravenna – There will be cake and candles this week to mark a decade of continuous service to Portage County residents by Portage Prepares, the online education and real-time information social media provided by the Portage County Emergency Management Agency.
To celebrate the anniversary, PCEMA wants to reach 5,000 friends on the Portage Prepares Facebook page with a free weather radio giveaway at the Portage County Randolph Fair, Aug. 22-27.
“Portage Prepares was one of the first social media resources for county-level emergency management in Ohio. We are very proud of that. It has informed residents from everything to severe weather warnings to keeping children safe and notices about closed roads. Thanks to our followers for their support,” said Ryan Shackelford, director of the Portage County EMA.
Portage Prepares is run by trained volunteers Amie Cajka, a public information specialist, with back up from Capt. Kevin Grimm of the Streetsboro Fire Department. PCEMA staff member, McKenzie Villatoro, OCEM, the agency emergency management specialist, supervises with Shackelford overseeing the information arm of the agency.
Portage Prepares is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PortagePrepares/ and on X (formerly Twitter) at https://twitter.com/PortagePrep. Portage Prepare’s Facebook is closing in on 5,000 followers.
Portage Prepares was created in 2013 by a group of local communication and safety professionals whose jobs included emergency management and who were working with the former Portage County Emergency Management Advisory Committee. The group included Cajka, Grimm, Becky Lehman, MPH, CHES, director of Health Education and Promotion, at the Portage County Health District, and Susan White, Randolph Township Trustee. White created the slogan, “Prepare, Survive, Thrive.”
Also involved in the development were Annette Pavlick Petranic, of Ravenna, interim PCEMA director at the time; Brian Kelley, former technology director for the Portage County Auditor’s Office; Bob Long, general manager of 88.9/WSTB Radio and faculty of Streetsboro High School; and Bob Walker, Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Medical Reserve Corps coordinator with the county health district.
Portage Prepares has generated more than 3,600 posts, most of which have focused on providing Portage County residents with safety education for surviving tornadoes, floods, severe storms, hazardous winter weather and extreme heat.
Shackelford has guided the development and incorporated the communication resource into the agency’s disaster response plans to be an effective tool for communicating with residents in an emergency.
The anniversary celebration will continue at the Randolph Fair in August. Portage Prepares Facebook followers who stop by the PCEMA booth and show their “like” or those who become friends at the fair will get chances to win. There will be extra chances if a person downloads the Portage County Emergency App available for iPhones and Androids to their phone.
