About Merritt Island CERT Inc. (Community Emergency Response Team) Serving Merritt Island and Cocoa Beach and the unincorporated areas between Cocoa and Titusville, Florida Meetings Meetings are held at 7:00 pm on the second Monday of every month except December at: Grace United Methodist Church of Merritt Island 65 Needle Blvd., Merritt Island, FL 32953 History A few Merritt Island, Florida citizens were trained in a CERT class in Cocoa, florida in the Spring of 2002. The first Merritt Island CERT class was held in the fall of 2002. The Merritt Island CERT Team, which includes Cocoa Beach, Florida, was formed and held our first monthly team meeting on Monday, March 3, 2003 with 24 certified members. We were sponsored by Brevard County Emergency Management. Our goal was to organize, provide training and preparedness for its members, and to recruit citizens for future CERT classes. Since then, we have held monthly meeting to become more organized and conduct ongoing training and preparedness for its members. We have sponsored at least one new training class each year and currently have over 100 certified CERT members on our team. We have participated in several county or state wide mock disasters to stay prepared. Our team officially became a 501-c3, non-profit organization in 2003. In 2004 our team had 12 members who served as Community Relation officers under FEMA for about 3 months to help our citizens recover from several hurricanes. In 2007 our sponsor changed to the Brevard County Fire Rescue. Our team has also reached out to our community to help other citizens be more prepared for a disaster. The following is a list of some of those activities: Had a booth and handed out disaster preparedness information at Hurricane Expos. Had a booth and handed out disaster preparedness information at Homeowner Association picnics. Handed out disaster information at local Wal-Mart at the begining of hurricane season each year. Made our presents known and offered asstance to trailer parks before and after hurricanes. Had a vintige fire truck with our CERT members on it as a unit in the Merritt Island Holiday Parade for several years. Developed the "Are You Ready?" 2 hour seminar, modified from the FEMA seminar for our area and conducted that seminar for several area churches and organizations starting in 2007. This seminar is to help our citizens to not just know how to prepare for a disaster, but rather how to take action. It includes: Information on what disasters are likely in our area How to develop your own family disaster plan how to put together a family disaster kit How to recover from a disaster Use the contact page form to request a seminar for your organization. CLICK HERE Donations If you would like to make a donation to our team so that we can continue the above programs to assist our community, please use the secure PayPal donation button on the home page. You do not need a PayPal account to make a donation and your credit card information is not revealed. We would be glad to include you on our Donors Page on our website and at our "Are You Ready?" seminars.