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Written by: Weather the Storm

1.            Novel holiday gifts for preparing for any "emergency”.
2.            Have you started to prepare for winter weather?  Still not too late.
3.            Holiday Safety Tips
4.            Volunteering for the Holidays

 

 

1. Novel holiday gift ideas to help your family and friends be prepared for any emergency-

You might want to consider giving a family member, friend or co-worker, a holiday gift “basket” filled with supplies for a survival kit, or even an age-specific or a pet emergency kit. You can purchase a pre-made kit, or create your own.  Please check out the weatherthestorm.com website for various checklists which can help you determine what to place in these gift baskets. 

The gift baskets can have a theme- be all color-coordinated (imagine, if someone you know loves the color purple- what if you were able to get all items in that color for the basket, if possible).  You can even include photos or videos for a more personal touch!

Other great “kit” ideas include a first-aid kit or a car emergency kit for winter weather.  If you typically give gloves, mittens, coats and sweaters as holiday gifts, why not create a “gift basket” with these supplies and other items for winter weather?  The American Red Cross has a winter storm checklist that can help you identify what to place in this “basket”.

FEMA has a nice video entiled "Preparedness is the Perfect Gift".  Check it out!

 

 

We at Weather the Storm™ are serious pet lovers, so we have included some ideas below for holiday gifts for your pets:

You can spend a few dollars to hundreds of dollars for a gift that can help in the recovery of a lost pet.  If you want to go low tech, you might want to consider purchasing a nice reflective personalized collar or pet tag with the pet’s name and phone number (you would be surprised as to how many pets don’t even have a collar!). 

We recommend a pet collar with the name of the pet and phone number directly on the collar, as opposed to just a tag, which might fall off.  These collars and/or tags can be purchased for less than $20.  Also consider a bright color, which will also make your pet more easily identifiable.

A step above this would be the purchase of a unique ID tag which connects to a flash drive where the owner can store all necessary information including contact address and phone number, vet information, photo, and special needs of the pet. 

One example of this product is PCPet ID, sold by Petco, which retails for under $25.

As a personal touch, you can collect all this information for the pet owner and place it on the flash drive.  The only thing the owner would now need to do is place the device on the pet’s collar.  What a nice idea to also place in that pet emergency gift basket, you have created!

You could investigate what pet recovery services are located in your community and find out how to register a pet and what fees are involved.  You can consider paying to have the pet microchipped. 

Microchips:  Microchips are one method for retrieving lost pets, but the process may be costly and time-consuming for many pet owners. Veterinarians will need to implant the microchip. We recommend that even if a pet is microchipped, that this info is also placed on the collar of pet ID tag.  There have been many instances where pets were not checked for the microchip for several hours or days.  The ability to track your pet in real time may make the difference of finding your animal in minutes as opposed to days, weeks or months.  This may be one disadvantage of the microchip if the pet is not scanned immediately after being found. 

GPS Pet Tracking Devices:  There are several GPS pet locator services on the market.  SpotLite and Tagg the Pet Tracker, are just two examples. Each system works a bit differently, so you  may want to read more on these devices prior to purchasing.  Choose one that meets your particular needs. 
In choosing a device, consider the following- types of pets that the device can be used to track, size/weight of pet (are there minimum requirements), distance that pet can be tracked, sturdiness/water resistant qualities, battery life, and methods of notifying the owner (i.e. emails or SMS alerts, phone call, etc.). Also check on the cost of service- one time, or monthly?

Might be a bit pricey for some, but would make for a great gift for those of us that are pet lovers.

2.            Still continue to prepare for winter weather-  

The American Red Cross has a nice winter storm checklist which you can print.  Also a great gift idea to include this checklist with your car emergency gift basket (see #1).

3.            Holiday Safety Tips-

The Consumer Products and Safety Commission (CPSC) has a nice brochure on preparing  for the holidays and how to prevent disasters associated with Christmas trees, lights, etc.  One of our favorite organizations, the National Fire Protection Association, has a program called “Project Holiday” which can help you with being prepared for holiday fire safety issues.

4.            Volunteering for the Holidays-

The holiday season has always been a time when we think of volunteering to help the homeless, working at a food bank or soup kitchen, or assisting our elderly friends and family members. 

Why not check with your local emergency management offices to find out what volunteer opportunities are available in your community?  You can decide to help your favorite local charity or community organization “get prepared” for emergencies- find out if the charity has an updated disaster plan and/or survival kits, and if not, this is a great opportunity to help them get prepared.  Weatherthestorm.com has lots of useful information to assist you with this.

It could be as simple as developing location-specific checklists or making certain that the supplies they do have are not expired or out of date.
Imagine their surprise to see community members like you helping them in this truly unique way!      

 

Happy Holidays from Weather the Storm!