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Fire Corps has had 7 activations in 2004, 8 in 2005, 16 in 2006, 13 in 2007, 18 in 2008, 8 in 2009, 14 in 2010, 17 in 2011, and 0 in 2012. Rowlett Fire Corps ran it's 100th call for service on Monday, August 15, 2011. This is a milestone for the program and members who provide essential rehab services to fire and police personnel in and around Rowlett. Congratulations Rowlett Fire Corps on your achievement! Rowlett CERT
has had 2 activations in 2005, 1 in 2006, 2 in 2007, 2 in 2008, and 1 in 2009, 1 in 2010, 1 in 2011 and 0 in 2012.
EastTex CERT
has had 2 activations in 2010
 Congratulations to Alex Hart, Deputy Post Commander, Rowlett Explorer Post One, for being accepted by the Texas School Safety Center to participate in the "Texas 25" Youth Preparedness Camp Pilot program as part of the 2011 Extreme Youth Leadership Training Camp. The camp takes place August 2-5 in Kerrville, TX at Schreiner University.
Alex recently attended the 2011 Texas Citizen Corps and VOAD Conference in Austin and had the opportunity to meet TX DPS Director Steve McCraw.
2010 Award and Recognition ProgramRCCC and Affiliated Program Annual Awards Robin Simoneaux, RCCC Pioneer Award
Scott Hart, Volunteer of the Year
Alex Hart, Explorer of the Year
Erik Ernst, President’s Award
Katelynn Raynes, Rising Star Award
Leisa Peebles, Member’s Choice Award
Michael D. Lucas, PhD, Outgoing CERT Director Recognition
 Award of Excellence · Sally Easley, Explorer Advisor Award of Excellence
· Lindsay Vulich, Explorer Award of Excellence
· David McLaughlin, CERT Award of Excellence
· Jonathan Dutsch, Fire Corps Award of Excellence
· Jeanne Powell, Fire Corps Award of Excellence CERT 5 Years of Service: (2005 – 2010) Deborah Rose, Ernst Rose, Carole Dodd, Todd Gottel, Kathy Baker, Erik Ernst, Bryan Norfolk, Chris Paul Fire Corps 5 Years of Service: (2005 – 2010) Ron Bragg, Kim Clark, Todd Gottel, Bryan Norfolk, Chris Paul, Theresa Sponholz President’s Volunteer Service Awards Call to Service Award — Honoring 4,000 hours or more of volunteer service (over a lifetime). 
« Whitney P. Laning (Burtonsville VFD, West Lanham Hills VFD, Beltsville VFD, American Heart Association, Rowlett Citizen Corps Council, Rowlett Rotary)
« Jack Murphy (Rowlett Citizen Corps Council, US Armed Forces)
« Barbara E. Smith (Rowlett Citizen Corps Council, Girl Scouts of America, Dallas Zoology Society, Texas Baptist Ministry Assistants, First Baptist Church of Garland)
« Gregory L. Peebles (Garland Jaycees, Texas Jaycees, US Jaycees, City of Rowlett, Rowlett Citizen Corps Council)
« Leisa Peebles (Garland Jaycees, Texas Jaycees, US Jaycees, City of Rowlett, Rowlett Citizen Corps Council) 
*The RCCC is a Certifying Agency for the PVSA. Service hours do not have to be granted from the RCCC to be recognized for an award.
The Rowlett Citizen Corps Council is HOT STUFF according to the Emergency Preparedness Planning Council of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. 
FIRE Wins 41-26
Rowlett Fire and Police faced off on Saturday and battled in the 5th Annual Shoots n Ladders softball game. The game was rescheduled from September due to inclement weather and scheduling conflicts.
First Place Finish for Rowlett/Parker CERT Team ROWLETT, TX – A combined team from Rowlett and Parker County Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) finished in first place at the 5th Annual Harris County CERT Rodeo Round Up near Houston. CERT Teams from around Texas competed Saturday at eleven stations that gave them a chance to train, refresh and challenge their CERT knowledge and skills. The CERT Rodeo features team events that focus on skills such as medical treatment and triage, search and rescue, cribbing, incident command, fire suppression, and team building just to name a few. Eighteen individual teams registered and were combined into ten multi-jurisdictional competition teams for the event. The Rowlett and Parker CERT programs sent a team of eighteen members to the competition; including six from the Rowlett Explorer Post 1 and three from Parker County. “It was a great opportunity for our members to demonstrate what we've learned during our CERT training. I'm very pleased with the team and I am proud to be part of such an excellent group of people. ” said Scott Hart, Director of the Rowlett Explorer Post 1. “We don’t do it to win competitions and bring home trophies; we do it because we truly care about the quality of life of our neighbors. We love Rowlett and the communities we live in.” said Erik Ernst, Rowlett CERT Program Director. “The team’s motivation to achieve and be better comes directly from the pride they have in our City and our long tradition of outstanding Citizen Volunteers.” Sally Easley, an Explorer Post 1 Advisor and CERT member observed that, “With every training opportunity we grow stronger, which makes us more valuable to our community if called to assist in a real emergency. Our team treats every training opportunity as a real situation.” Rowlett CERT placed second at the same event in 2010. “Rowlett may be one of the top 25 best places to live, but it also has one of the top CERT teams in Texas, supported by an outstanding Explorer Post.” said Whitney Laning, RCCC President. Rowlett was named as one of the “Top 25 Best Places to Live” by Money Magazine in 2010. “It’s truly great to have this caliber of outstanding volunteers. They are the spirit of service in our community.” RCCC volunteers contributed nearly 12,000 service hours last year at meetings, drills, training, event support activities and emergency activations. “We’re grateful to Harris County Citizen Corps for the opportunity to participate in this well organized competition.”
Team Member Quotes:
The victory of the Rowlett / Explorer / Parker County CERT team at the Harris County CERT rodeo speaks volumes about the communities we live in. The team’s motivation to achieve and be better comes directly from the pride they have in our City and our long tradition of outstanding Citizens Volunteers. If you look at the composition of the team that went to Harris County we have members who are not only in CERT but also serve in VIPS, Fire Corps, RACES, and on various city Boards, Commissions and Advisory Panels. One of our competition team members is the Mayor of Aledo and another the Rowlett 2010 volunteer of the year. But this is not unique to the team who competed in Harris County. If you look at CERT and the RCCC you will see a long history of community involvement including current and past City Council Members, RACES members, Board and Commission Members, Fire Corps, VIPS, Explores, non-profits, Red Cross and highly motivated CERT members. On the Explorer side, the youth not only serve the City in that capacity, but are also involved in Fire Corps, student government, band, sports, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and other organizations contributing to our superb communities.
We go through the same training as other CERT teams but we take it more seriously. We take additional training to enhance our response capability. Explorers work weekly to increase their knowledge of emergency services and management. We all take time away from our families, friends and recreational activities to make ourselves better CERT members. We don’t do it to win competitions and bring home trophies, we do it because we truly care about the quality of life of our citizens and we love Rowlett and the communities we live in. This was not a hand-picked team that went to Harris County. I have no doubt that had we randomly picked the competing team from the membership of Rowlett CERT, Post 1 Explorers, and Parker County CERT, the results would have been the same. We spend a lot of time training, educating, and preparing to respond to our primary mission hoping and praying that we will never be called on to serve in this role. But should that day ever come I would want to live in Rowlett and I would entrust my families lives to the care of any Rowlett Citizens Corps team member.
- Erik Ernst| C.E.R.T. Director | Explorer Post 1 Advisor
The 2011 Harris County Cert Rodeo Roundup was a great opportunity to compete against some of the best CERT teams in the State of Texas. Given the competition, it was a remarkable feat to have finished in 1st place. This is a perfect example of the quality training that is provided by Rowlett CERT. I am truly honored to have been a member of this combined Rowlett and Parker County CERT team.
- Frank Seigler, RCCC Secretary, CERT & Explorer Post 1 Advisor
Aside from the opportunity to participate with a stellar, award winning team, Parker County CERT gleaned a lot of tips, tidbits, program ideas and forged new friendships from the Rowlett team and its leadership.
- Kit Marshall, Mayor, City of Aledo, Parker County CERT Coordinator, Vice Chair - NCTCOG Regional Citizen Corps Council
The best experience the CERT program could have, to be able to work everything we've learned into real experience situations.
- Leisa Peebles, RCCC Treasurer, CERT, Fire Corps, VIPS
Photograph: 2011 Rowlett/Parker CERT Rodeo Competition Team Rear (l to r): J. Michael Howington, PhD., Sherry Hart, Todd Gane, Erik Ernst, David McLaughlin, David Reeves* Middle (l to r): Jack Murphy, Frank Seigler, Sally Easley, Leisa Peebles, Glenda Reeves*, Kit Marshall* Front (l to r): Scott Hart, Gibron Ledbedder, Alex Hart, Yamiah Tolbert, Lindsay Vulich, Katy Raynes, Jonathan Dutsch *Parker County CERT Members 2/14/2011 | |
