As the seasons change and another year rolls past, I am again reminded of how special the CERT community is; both in the National Capitol Region (https://ncrcert.org) and here in Montgomery County. Under the leadership of Fire Chief Corey A. Smedley, and Division Chief Michael Kelley, and with the support of the DVS team, 2025 was a great year for MoCo CERT.
We successfully conducted two CERT basic classes, One Teen CERT, multiple CPR classes- both internal and external facing, and a number of Save A Life courses in the community. Our training crew is second to none, and I look forward to an active year of training in 2026, including a new Teen CERT class beginning in January.
Our Go Team and Operations folks were very busy in 2025 providing cooling stations on longer duration incidents to emergent apartment evacuations, and our normal compliment of planned events including fireworks displays, outdoor concerts, Oktoberfest, bike rides, and much more.
The MoCo CERT outreach effort never takes a month off and continued that tradition in 2025 with participation at the county fair, Touch a Truck events, Halloween affairs, and a steady presence at county events.
In 2026, we look forward to a greater integration with our partners at OEMHS and the Community Risk Reduction team in MCFRS to deliver training and service to our county in the most efficient manner.
As always, I am deeply grateful for the chance to work with the wonderful group pf volunteers who comprise the Montgomery County Community Response Team .
Happy new year to you and those you hold dear.
Greg St. James
