Omaha Police Mounted Patrol

This week I got to spend some time with an officer from the Omaha Police Mounted Patrol. In an age of high speed police chases and cutting edge technology crime-fightning, it was a real experience to speak with a police officer sitting atop a large Morgan horse.

The Omaha Police Mounted Patrol Unit began in 1989 as a part-time Unit on a trial basis when two community leaders, then Omaha Mayor P.J. Morgan and area businessman Donovan Ketzler, decided to implement a horse patrol. The Unit started with two Officers, two donated horses, a donated trailer, and all the accompanying donated tack. The original Mounted Patrol Officers assisted with big events such as Septemberfest and River City Roundup along with patrolling the downtown area, responding to disturbances, and playing a crucial role in crowd control situations. The new horse patrol exceeded expectations and was such a success in all areas of law enforcement, special events, and public relations that the Mounted Patrol was made a full-time Unit in 1990.

Mounted Patrol Officers perform all aspects of police work from horseback including traffic and crowd control; they conduct traffic stops, write citations, and make arrests. Horse Patrol Officers are often utilized during searches for missing persons, evidence, and suspects in open fields, wooded areas, and rough terrain.

The Unit has a state-of-the-art equine facility downtown and the patrol operates nearly year 'round, riding the city in even the coldest of temperatures. The powerful well-trained horses are really amazing and it was a pleasure to watch these fantastic animals.

There is a cool video of the horses in training at http://www.ketv.com/news/18882179/detail.html#

Omaha trip over

Well, another week has passed and with it some of the best events of the year. After having just finished a tour through some Omaha Public Schools, I am feeling really good about the new year's new school programming. Every grade was an absolute blast and we met so many great teachers (and a few great principals) on this trip and cannot wait to return to Omaha.

It was good to see David and Shari again at the Conestoga Magnet School and the turn-out for the evening event with the parents was really awesome!

Now, as the week ended with Hamilton, it ended on a VERY positive note...what a great school! The teachers were really fun to be around and Shawn (the principal) is definitely Chasing4Life material. How cool is a school where you can take riding lessons from the Omaha mounted Police? Congrats on a successful walk-a-thon you guys and I am looking forward to coming back!

Your kitchen and disasters

I found this cool article on About.com...

Natural disasters are a reality that the entire world deals with including hurricanes, floods, blizzards, and even simple short-term power outages. It is important to be prepared in the kitchen. Those who are used to severe weather storms most likely already have an emergency food plan in place. Find out what you can do to prepare your kitchen for natural disasters or any state of emergency with tips and recipes.

For the rest of the article, visit http://homecooking.about.com/od/disaster/a/disasterpantry.htm

By Peggy Trowbridge Filippone

There is a GREAT list of cooking tips, foods to stock for disasters and a lot more! Best article I have seen in a long time! Seriously people, read this article and check out the links!

A season of change

It has been a week since the last leg of the tour ended and we are still not fully recovered. Trucks to fix, paperwork to do, filming to prepare for and we leave again on Monday for a tour in Omaha of public schools! Not really time off!

There are a lot of changes coming up ahead with Chasing4Life, the educational foundation, drivers, instructors, tours and the website. You will begin to notice (and might have already) that the website pages are being re-written. Banners will change, sponsors are being changed, moved and added, and the overall feel of things is changing. You will be noticing new pages, a new focus, more educational materials and hopefully more blogging!

The film, Chasing With Heart, could be very well on its way to completion with the arrival of Verita Pictures from Canada in 7 days to finish shooting. This is exciting and will put us into the next phase of Chasing4Life's changes.

We are excited that our old crew has almost completely returned and the disaster recovery focus has definitely returned to Chasing4Life bringing with it memories of the ice storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards of a few years ago.

Christina is working hard on the recovery team and recruitment along with tour packaging and grants while Nikki has begun to work on personnel and protocols for the restored team. Chad is presently working on a new truck and will be working on victim relations procedures while we hope Dan can complete a communications plan for the coming year. It is our goal to send Cory to school this year; a move we feel would give us one of the finest forecasters any team could have, and Jim is looking ahead to disaster recovery coordination and will be meeting with Nikki over the weekend. Cathy is hard at work on tours and scheduling events while Alannah is preparing for more involvement as a presenter on the next few tours while keeping up on her studies.

Chasing4Life's metamorphysis will be massive over the next few months as we focus more on severe weather monitoring and training, research and education, disaster recovery and community restoration. You will see fewer references to stormchasing as the months progress as Chasing4Life begins to make changes that will separate the organization from the perceptions that follow stormchasers around the country.

Looking forward to seeing all the changes? We are!

Want to be involved?

Now is the time to email us and request a disaster response team application. Now is the time to grab an available date for your organization before the tours are full, and now would be a great time to step up as a sponsor.

It's almost the end of the year, and sponsorships all expire at the end of the year so if you are a company, entity or organization looking to attach themselves to a national team with national exposure and a cause worth backing, email us right away.

Well, enough for now, but watch for more and more updates...

Oh yeah...don't forget!

The 72 Hour experiement is less than 10 days away!

City of Lebanon

Today was a really cool day. Alannah and I had time to drive around historic Lebanon, Tennessee and we were allowed to privately tour The City of Lebanon Museum and History Center all by ourselves. It was a great opportunity to have the museum all to ourselves and to spend time studying the history of this unique town. The disaster history of the town and surrounding area is actually pretty incredible! We'll post some pics of our day and week over this weekend.

End of another week of touring

The week began with quite a drive into Tennessee. The mountains were amazing in the early morning fog and nothing beats watching thunderheads form over the mountains.

As the week progressed, we were amazed at the number of Tennessee residents that really had no idea how many tornadoes actually occur in Tennessee. We talked about New Madrid, tornadoes, H1N1 and many other subjects while touring the state.

The librarians we met were outstanding and the people were so welcoming, it was hard to leave the eastern side of the State!

We want to thank Ginger from Jonesboro for going above and beyond the call of duty by taking Zephyros to the garage and making sure she was fixed after our breakdown...This woman is MUCH more than a librarian! She's our hero!

As for Theresa in Blountville...where do I start? We wish we could take you home- you belong on staff at Chasing4Life for you are TRULY twisted!

Due to the breakdown, we had to cancel (postpone) our stop in Athens, Tennessee, but arrangements are being made to return to Tennessee and present in Athens soon.

Now, as the week draws to a close, Alannah and I are in Nashville looking out over a busy Labor Day weekend. Please everyone, drive safely. The two of us are going to take two days off ourselves and enjoy a little of the nation's Country Capital.