Church Preparedness Fair in Las Vegas offers tips to be ready for emergencies

Major flooding in Texas, hurricanes in Oklahoma, earthquakes in Ecuador … those are just some of the recent headlines in the news. All natural disasters that destroyed lives, homes and communities. And people turn to others to help them get through and begin again.

One of those groups of people who are prepared for disasters and are ready to step in and help wherever needed is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Being prepared is a philosophy of the church.

With that in mind, the Paradise Stake held a Preparedness Fair last week to share their knowledge and to show others how to get started with their own survival kits.

More than 300 people passed through the fair gathering information that was available at exhibits and workshops, all facilitated by church members who already have their own survival gear, food and water storage and in some cases emergency shelters.

One person who was there to get more ideas was Jessica Kuntz, a church member who already has her own survival kits with vast amounts of food storage and emergency gear. But even she learned new ways to increase and replenish her supplies. “I came today because I wanted to find new resources,” she said. “I’m the resource queen. I just love learning and gathering new information.”

Preparing food supplies came easy to Kuntz. “I do couponing,” she said, “and I have a stockpile of food that fills an entire room.I like to keep a years’ worth of supplies and I’m always replenishing what I already have. I haven’t bought toilet paper for a year,” she added, “but it’s time to build my supply up again and I will, thanks to coupons I’ve collected.”

Kuntz knows how important it is to be prepared. She faced her own personal crisis not long ago. “I had a really good job,” she said, “but when the economy turned I was unexpectedly laid off. It wasn’t easy for my family, but my food storage and emergency supplies helped us get through the hard times.

“People don’t often think that being prepared will help in a personal tragedy but it really does. In church we learn to always be prepared, and thankfully we were.”

Now her large food supply is helping others, including her own mother. “My mom works but doesn’t make enough money to live on. So she comes to my house to shop.”

And she has also helped neighbors and friends in difficult times. “If there’s a need I like to help people. At first my neighbors laughed at my huge stockpile room, they don’t anymore.” Joining Kuntz at the fair was her 5-year-old son, Brayden. “I really like it here,” he said. And his favorite part of the day was a large, 10-man tent that was on display.

“This tent provides emergency shelter,” said Kerry O’Brien, the driving force behind the fair. “It’s not like the tents in the old days,” he added, “this one is so easy to build or take down. It only takes a few minutes.”

But the shelter is just one part of the overall experience of being prepared for disasters, big and small. “In our church there is an emphasis on preparedness and on helping the community,” he said. “We need to be mindful of these things and be ready if something happens.’

That is what gave O’Brien the idea of the fair. “We wanted to show what members are already doing, and we wanted to share it with the community.“

One of the exhibitors had a lot to share, Bill and Molly Cassel. For the past two years they have been gathering a large collection of survival gear in preparation for any kind of disaster. And Bill said it’s easier than you think to start building up your own survival kits.

“It’s pretty easy to get started,” he said, especially when beginning to store food items. “People think you have to buy a huge supply to begin with, but you can start with buying one can at a time.

“I get a lot of my stuff from the dollar store and even Walgreens,” Cassel said. “It doesn’t have to cost a lot to be prepared. I learned a lot of it when I was in the Scouts, but now I’ve just taken it a bit further.”

This fair was such a success that O’Brien is already planning for the next one in a few years.

“Even I learned from this one,” he said. And he’s looking forward to involving children more next time. “We can show them things like safe paints, and how they can start being prepared themselves.”