Spring Forward! As we all adjust to longer days, the fresh green grass and incredible mustard bloom this year are a welcome sight. Napa CART has begun it’s annual training season and we hosted 51 new and 85 returning volunteers in late January via Zoom. It was an excellent turnout of enthusiastic CART members, and we were able to build upon lessons learned in 2020. For a full Napa CART training schedule, see Volunteer Training Events
Napa Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training is now available online due to Covid-19 restrictions. Currently, numerous new Napa CART volunteers are enrolled in this program, as CERT training is a fundamental component of CART training. If you are interested in signing up for CERT training, send an email to [email protected]. CART’s partnership with CERT was pivotal to addressing the challenges of the 2020 fire season, and we look forward to another year of collaboration and joint training as we plan for 2021.
On March 4th, 44 volunteers zoomed in to attend CART Hotline training. Napa CART is beta testing a disaster database management system called Shelterly, which was developed by Trevor Skaggs and the North Valley Animal Disaster Group (NVADG). Trained CART volunteers will be able to receive calls for assistance remotely, and populate an evacuation and shelter database to track all animals from initial call to reunification with their owner. Napa CART managed over 350 calls for aid during the 2020 wildfires, and we are excited to expand our call center capabilities and provide mutual aid to surrounding counties.
With the help of Video-Mike Kerson, Napa CART has been producing training videos to augment volunteer skills and knowledge involving different aspects of animal care. This training video library can be found on our YouTube page. We are collaborating with CARTs across the state to share training materials and develop training reciprocity regionally. This will create better opportunities for mutual aid in large scale events. Once Covid-19 restrictions ease up, we plan to resume in person training. For now, monthly Zoom training and discussion of videos and 2020 response scenarios keeps us working and learning together.
A 2021 goal of Napa CART is to improve outreach and aid to seniors in the community who have pets and might need evacuation assistance. Thanks to a generous grant from the David and Jane Gotelli Family Fund, we are able to procure evacuation supplies for companion animals. If you know of someone in your neighborhood who could benefit from CART outreach and check in during fire
season, please encourage them to email [email protected] for more information. Our community advisors including Napa County Animal Shelter, Napa Humane, Jameson Humane, Wine Country
Animal Lovers and Sunrise Horse Rescue are dedicated to enhancing outreach and aiding those who need planning assistance to prepare their animals for potential evacuation.
Read the PDF version (opens in a new window and includes photos!) Napa-CART-News-Spring-2021-1.pdf