Prepare your kids for severe weather awareness week!

Several times in recent years, schools have been hit by tornadoes. In most instances, fortunately, classes were not in session. In some other instances, where students were present, school officials made fantastic choices and saved many lives.

Over the course of the next month or so, schools around the country will encounter their own “Severe Weather Awareness” weeks. Each state has its own scheduled week, and during this week, schools will have their tornado drills.

For me, growing up, tornado drills were nothing more than an opportunity to get out of class, sit in the hallway next to a friend and have a conversation. This behavior usually netted me a detention, but hey, at least I was not in the classroom!

With Nebraska’s Severe Weather Week coming up soon, I want to encourage you to talk to your kids about severe weather awareness issues. Scrolling back through all of the blog entries here, you can find a vast resource of information or you can visit the local National Weather Service websites.

Why should you talk to your kids now? Because I know kids. When the day arrives for tornado drills at your child’s school, they will already have been warned. The drill will be held with the lights on in the hallways and probably in the middle of the day. While the drill is important to teach your children the LOGISTICAL aspects of what they should do, it will in no way prepare them for the real thing psychologically. When the real thing happens, there will be no lights in the hallways except for those “spooky” little emergency lights. It won’t be quiet in the hallway and it certainly will not be quiet outside. The kid next to them will not be talking about X-Box or Justin Bieber either, chances are, that kid will be crying or scared speechless.

When we tour schools and libraries and churches around the country, we encourage families to have two tornado drills at home. The first should be mid-day with the lights on at a pre-arranged time. If that goes well, the second should be at a time only you know, should be at night, in the dark with the lights off. You'’ be shocked to find how much longer it takes you to get to your "“afe place” when the conditions are changed.

The same applies to the school drill, only we know the school is not going to be able to simulate the real-deal, so by spending 10 or 15 minutes with your child before Severe Weather Awareness Week, you can make them aware that this upcoming drill is important, that you expect them to pay attention and take it seriously, and to imagine a different environment when they are practicing the procedure.

Lately I have fielded some questions about how young is too young to discuss this all with children…make no mistake. Even the youngest children know what a tornado is and what it does. They watch it on television, they learn about them in school. There is no reason to traumatize your child, but don’t whitewash the important facts! Tornadoes are dangerous and kids need to take them a lot more seriously than they see folks doing on television!

I remember that poor teacher of mine, yelling at me to shut up during drills… If my parents had sat me down for a few minutes, perhaps I would have taken the whole thing a lot more seriously.

President’s budget freezes library funding

President Obama today released his FY2011 Budget Proposal to Congress, calling for a freeze to federal library funding under the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), the primary source of federal funding for libraries.

Under the President’s plan, LSTA would be level-funded at $214 million.

As Americans deal with the weakened economy, they are using their libraries more than ever before, visiting them over 119 million times each month. American Library Association (ALA) President Camila Alire said freezing federal funding for libraries at this time of increased demand will hinder libraries from serving job-seekers, who are flocking to the library for help with online job searching and applications, resume writing, computer classes and much more.

“During this time of hoped-for economic recovery, public libraries are one of the greatest tools our nation has, and a lack of federal support jeopardizes this critical institution,” Alire said.

“President Obama often speaks about helping America get back to work, and libraries are critical access points to information and resources that are helping job-seekers every day. Unfortunately, countless libraries in our country are suffering from state budget cuts that have resulted in staff loss, reduced hours, or even closures. Many libraries have managed to efficiently use what little resources they have, but they are hanging on by a thread.

Federal funding may be a small percentage of the funding America’s libraries receive, but it is critical. The ALA calls on Congress to support America’s libraries by not only restoring the funding lost to libraries in the President’s budget proposal but by increasing the funding, which is desperately needed.”

The President’s budget also included a $400 billion investment into education but did not include specific funds for school libraries. Alire said the federal government should invest in school libraries to ensure every student graduates from high school with 21st century skills.

“It is alarming that the President did not recognize the value of school libraries in today’s schools and include them in this effort to improve education,” Alire said.

“Research repeatedly shows that a well-funded and fully staffed school library program with a state-licensed school librarian is an integral component of a student’s education.”

American Library Association

National Library Week

For the last several months we have heard it over and over again:

"Our library budget has been cut".

With that in mind, the Chasing4Life Team began to work on new programs and new program incentives that would fit library budgets so that we could become a part of the solution and not the problem. We know that events at the library are important, and in fact, we believe that the library has become an integral part of every community's infrastructure more than ever before so reaching out to the community with education is more important than ever!

This year, National Library Week is April 11-17 and I find it interesting that the theme for this year's National week is "Communities Thrive @ Your Library".

Now is that time to take advantage of a national marketing campaign, cross-marketing avenues, social media and the program incentives we have been offering. Communities really DO thrive at the library! During tough economic times, libraries see more and more folks coming in to educate themselves, learn how to write resumes, brush up on procedures and news, use the internet and generally just utilize every aspect of the library!

A thriving library makes for a thriving community and budget cuts cannot deter the library from boldly standing up and saying "HERE! WE FOUND SOMETHING YOU NEED!"

With hundreds of libraries booking events with us, we have seen the picture pretty clearly too often; libraries pay WAY too much for WAY too little. That's why we have created entire days of programming for age groups starting with pre-schoolers and ending with Senior Citizens to maximize the potential of each and every day.

No good book has one or two chapters; every librarian knows that, so why not contact us today and see just how many chapters a day at the library with Chasing4Life can have?
Imagine a day filled with severe weather, earthquake, hurricane, lightning, geology, paleontology, climate change, and more. Watch your community grow stronger before your very eyes as they are reintroduced to a library filled with life-changing education on every shelf!

Our country is wrought with disasters from natural to man-made. We believe that with more education we will need less response and that an educated community is a resilient one. It is our goal as we tour to help communities thrive.

You can contact us through the website at www.chasing4life.org and within 24 hours you'll be on the phone with a very passionate, very excited, pro-library team member.

We look forward to seeing you this year.