Hoos Ready is a special status organization promoting and campaigning for emergency preparedness at UVA. Our members are University students, faculty, and staff who sign our safety pledge to keep emergency preparedness and safety as a priority. This pledge is an indication and promise to the University that you will fulfill your responsibility to maintain our community’s standard of safety. To serve our members, Hoos Ready instructs students and the community on issues of emergency preparedness in collaboration with the University’s Office of Emergency Preparedness. Signing a Hoos Ready safety pledge and becoming a member allows you to benefit from the resources Hoos Ready provides including:
~ FREE t-shirt
~ monthly safety tips promoted by the Office of Emergency Preparedness
~ information about and access to Hoos Ready events and services
Pledge:
I pledge to keep emergency preparedness and safety a priority in my life and in my community.
Name:
Email:
T-Shirt Size:
Year or Occupation:
members and counting
updated 7 May 2010
The purpose of Hoos Ready is to educate, promote, and campaign for emergency preparedness at the University of Virginia and to the surrounding community. Hoos Ready believes that every person can be an asset in an emergency situation and by creating awareness we can help to ensure that UVA students, faculty, and staff are prepared in the event of an emergency. By taking measures to educate our membership, Hoos Ready strives to take a stand, start a trend, and always be prepared for any crisis or urgent situation.
Our Constitution
As members of the University community we are expected not only to take care and protect its honor, but also to protect ourselves. In response to the tragedy of the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007, the University was compelled to prepare and educate students on how best to deal with tragedy and devastation if our community were ever faced with an emergency. Through student initiative and faculty support a new organization was founded at UVA: Hoos Ready.
In the fall of 2007, Hoos Ready was formed as a Contracted Independent Organization at the University of Virginia. Hoos Ready rapidly grew during its first year and was able to transition into a Special Status Organization during the 2008-2009 academic year, working in coordination with the Office of Emergency Preparedness.
Hoos Ready serves a unique purpose at the University. The leadership of Hoos Ready is made up of undergraduate students working in conjunction with faculty, staff, hospital personnel, University police, and other student run organizations to promote our mission at UVA and to the community. To be as effective as possible, we strive to reach out beyond the boundaries of the student body and incorporate every sector of the community.
The relationships we are developing allow us to serve as a liaison between University and community in achieving emergency preparedness. Hoos Ready has four positions expressly devoted to community outreach. These positions include our Health and Medical liaisons and Community liaisons, which actively work on outreach to the broader spectrum of Hoos Ready’s target audience.
Throughout the year Hoos Ready participates in numerous activities that promote our mission. We coordinate with other organizations as well as host our own events aimed at boosting membership. During the summer of 2009, Hoos Ready had the honor of sending a student leader to the University’s Leadership 2009, also known as L2K, a week long leadership training program. As we continue to grow and spread our mission, it is Hoos Ready’s distinct goal to educate students, faculty, staff, and community members to ensure that everyone takes an active role in their own emergency preparedness.
bike safety
power outage safety
fire safety
January 2010
Discovery of Morgan Harrington's Remains
UVa Student Dies in Haiti's Earthquake
2010 Snowstorm, Personnel Response
December 2009
UVa Recovers from Record 20.5 Inches of Snowfall
November 2009
Update on Morgan Harrington
October 2009
Help needed for Finding Morgan Harrington
Police Set Up New Tip Line in
Harrington Disappearance
Timeline for Harrington Disappearance
Halloween Safety
May 2010
Tragedy at UVa; Message from President Casteen, Chief of Police
April 2010
UVa Police Dept. Promotes Bicycle Safety in Wake of Fatal Accident
September 2009
Emergency Stadium Evacuation Exercise!
UVA Employees Take Preparedness Course
August 2009
Highly Active Flu Season
Aggressive Fox on Grounds
February 2010
Message from Leonard Sandridge; University Cancels Classes February 5, 2010
UVa Groups Plan Events for Haiti
On the 11th of every month, Hoos Ready begins promoting it's
monthly safety tip. The publicity campaign begins through an email
to our membership, advertisements
on the Plasma HooView
televisions in Newcomb Hall, advertisements in UVA Today newsletter, and through
Membership Tabling around Grounds.
Hoos Ready offers Personal Safety and Wellness FOA (Fraternal Organization Agreement) presentations to sororities and fraternities at the University of Virginia upon request. If you wish to learn more about our FOAs, email Abha Arora (aa3gr).
During summer orientation Hoos Ready and the Office of Emergency Preparedness have safety bags called "Go Bags" available to the First Year class. The bags provide students with resources such as the Safety Procedures Chart, Information on safety resources, and an introductory letter from the Executive Board of Hoos Ready. Students are able to pick this bag up during Orientation and throughout the year they are encouraged to fill the bag with more emergency preparedness information provided by Hoos Ready and other safety resources. Funding is provided by The UVA Parents Committee.
Hoos Ready is always open to new opportunities for establishing relationships and promoting programs with other organizations or individuals.
In the spirit of fostering relationships with groups around grounds, we want to work with you to promote emergency preparedness and safety at UVa. For more Information, email Kelsey Durels(kld6v).
Instead of considering what is past, however, we are to look forward and prepare for the future...
Safe Day
Safe Day is an event that takes place in the McCormick Road
Quad for first year students. This event is hosted by Student
Council and brings together several safety related organizations. This event is for first year students and is designed to introduce them to emergency preparedness organizations. At past Safe Days the Fire Department has set up safety procedure demonstrations and safety obstacle courses, and students are given a chance to learn safety tips and also pledge their commitment to Emergency Preparedness and become members of Hoos Ready.
... thus, Hoos Ready continually strives to be an organization that plans, coordinates, and participates in a variety of events throughout the school year
First Year Safety Talks
During the first weeks of school each first year is required to attend Safety Talks. These talks allow organizations such as the University Police, Sexual Assault Resource Agency, 1 and 4, to name a few, along with Hoos Ready, to come together and educate the newest members of the UVA community about emergency preparedness. Each year, Hoos Ready leadership presents at Safety Talks to introduce the first years and transfer students to the importance of being linked in to Hoos Ready and all the valuable resources we have available to students.
Move! Hoos Emergency Evacuation Exercise
Move! Hoos was an event that Hoos Ready participated in during September 2009. This was a training activity designed to help Scott Stadium security properly respond in the case of an emergency during a football game. The emergency scenario of the exercise was a threatening thunder storm, and student actors played roles that the security responded to in the evacuation. To read more about the event click here.
Membership Drives
Membership drives are hosted sporadically throughout the year on Grounds as a way to attract more members to Hoos Ready. During membership drives students are able to learn about Hoos Ready and pledge their membership. Students can also pick up their Hoos Ready t-shirt during these drives.
Future Events
~ Emergency Preparedness training at local elementary schools
~ Make-Your-Own-Safety-Kits
~ Emergency Preparedness Leadership Summit
Important Phone Numbers
Police/Fire/Rescue/Emergency: 911
Crisis Intervention: (434) 924-5556 or (434) 243-5150
Facilities Management Trouble: (434) 924-1777
Inclement Weather Information: (434) 243-SNOW or 924-SNOW
Community Emergency Response Team [CERT]: (434) 971-1263
Open House Crisis Hotline: (434) 295-TALK
Shelter for Help in Emergency [SHE]: (434) 293-8509
Hoos Ready is committed to providing an array of up-to-date and comprehensive resources. Here, we have included important information and links to resources that we hope will be helpful to members of our community as well as to our organizations on grounds.
Emergency
Procedures
Greek Life
Emergency Chart
Helpful Links
A public service announcement brought to you by UVA Parents Committee and UVA Film Makers Society:
During this holiday season, you can never be too safe - remember to lock your doors before leaving, especially for a long break!
UVa Emergency Information
UVa Alerts
UVa Health System
Office of Environmental Health & Safety
Ready Virginia
Emergency Communications Center
(Charlottesville/UVa/Albemarle County)
Virginia Department of Emergency Management
Virginia Department of Health
American Red Cross of Central VA
Department of Homeland Security
Pandemic Flu
UVa Office of Emergency
Preparedness
The Hoos Ready Leadership Team is dedicated to serving The University and its surrounding community. If you have a specific question or request, feel free to contact a member of our executive board!
Executive Board Members
Leadership Team
Rebeccah Chacon
Catherine Donatone
Programs
Caroline Rushing
Alex Waggoner
Secretary
Judy Tat
Webmaster
Kelsey Durels
President
3rd year
kld6v_virginia.edu
Lesley Luginbill
VP of Administration
3rd Year
lal2u_virginia.edu
Nicole Poltash
Publicity
4th year
nap5r_virginia.edu
Abha Arora
VP of Programs
2nd Year
aa3gr_virginia.edu
Julia Croote
VP of Finance
jac4tk_virginia.edu
Stephanie Misencik
VP of Membership
svm3f_virginia.edu
Donate Online Today!
Hoos Ready uses donations to continue to spread our message and reach our goal of building a culture of emergency preparedness. Thank you for your support!
© 2010. All Rights Reserved. Hoos Ready is a special status organization at the University of Virginia. Hoos Ready works with the University of Virginia's Office of Emergency Preparedness to guarantee good standing with the University and its goals.
