ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Preparedness Month has been celebrated since 2004, and the month is a great time to take small steps to make a big difference in being prepared.
Locally, Christina Baeza, the public health emergency preparedness coordinator and marketing coordinator at the Seward County Health Department, has been helping residents plan for emergencies for four years.
A Liberal native, Baeza has a bachelor’s degree in business from Fort Hays State University, and before coming to SCHD, she has owned businesses in the community. In addition to her responsibilities with the health department, she is co-owner of an event business in the Southgate Mall.
“The kids come in and rent and make their events – weddings, quinceañeras, whatever it is,” she said.
Baeza is married with three children, and she said she came to her current position with little to no experience in emergency preparedness.
“It’s all new to me in terms of what I need to do with the title of my job,” she said.
Baeza, who came to work near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, said she is at SCHD to make sure locals are prepared in case an emergency such as COVID happens.
“We’ve had a little measles scare lately. It’s all good and clear now,” she said. “I’m here to make sure we’re trained, equipped and staffed and ready to go in case we need to at the health department.”
Baeza too attends meetings of the Liberal Area Coalition for Families and the Local Emergency Planning Committee, and she said this helps keep community members ready should a major event happen.
Baeza also participates in FEMA training, and she is a part of the local Community Emergency Response Team to add to her readiness for difficulties.
“I’m CPR trained,” she said. “I do have to go some trainings. We do a yearly drill. I do attend the ones we have locally like at the airport. We have one for Wheatridge. All agencies try to be there whenever anyone has one locally here in town. That way, we can all be there for what we’re needed and what needs to be done in case something occurs.”
Baeza began working during the pandemic, and she said it was after COVID was done that her current position became available.
“I took it and stayed on, and I love working here,” she said.
Baeza said her goals are simply to bring awareness to the community to help them be prepared and ready for emergencies.
“I would advise having your equipment ready,” she said. “Make sure you have your kids ready. Check your smoke detector. Get your batteries up to date on everything. It’s an awareness for our county and our community to make sure they are prepared. I’ll be honest — before I started here, I didn’t check all this stuff out.”
In this way, Baeza said community members will know where to go, what to do and what not to do, as well as gain a greater awareness when an emergency happens.
Baeza likewise does much in the way of outreach on emergency education, and with many non-English speaking people in the community, she does outreach in both English and Spanish.
“I attend a lot of outreach,” she said. “Right now, I’m affiliated with United Way, and we’ve been going to National Beef, doing outreach out there, taking preparedness stuff. I did the college orientation fair.”
Oct. 4, Baeza will be doing outreach at Southwest Medical Center’s Community Health Fair, and the hospital and health department are coordinating on a coat drive.
“The health department will be donating a certain amount,” she said. “The hospital will be donating a certain amount of coats, and we will distribute them to USD 480 and USD 483. We’re trying to reach at least 50 brand new coats, and we’ll be giving them out through the Seward County Safety Council over 600 winter hats and gloves to get into winter preparedness and the safety of winter for children and adults.”
Baeza also is at events such as Immunization Week, where children are given free bottles of water, along with Chap Stick and bug repellant to remind them to be aware of safety during the summer season.
“I did swimming safety where we gave out more than 10 swimming lessons for children through the Rec,” she said. “They paid for it. We raffled those out at the library to children and gave out swimming safety gear so you could be ready to attend your swimming classes.”
Baeza said when it comes to outreach, she simply picks an area to provide it.
“If there’s an outreach, I’m there to get everybody on the same page to get prepared or if they have any questions about our services at the health department, what we can and cannot help with,” she said.
September is National Preparedness Month, and with this year’s theme, “Preparedness Starts at Home,” Baeza said the moth is all about preparedness.
“Get your home ready,” she said. “Get your documents ready. Get your children ready. Be ready for anything because you never know.”
At the time Baeza was hired, COVID was starting to phase out, but she still gained a little experience from the pandemic. During that time, she likewise was able to some public outreach.
“We did go out to the radio station to tell people Seward County is zero, or this is what you need to do if you have symptoms,” she said. “Call, don’t just walk in. We did get out and talk to KSCB and the Meade radio, the Spanish station to get people updated on what was going on so there wasn’t a scare.”
