Georgia Stores Help Customers Prepare with ‘Ready Georgia’

Ready Georgia, a statewide emergency readiness campaign, turns two this month. The program encourages Georgia residents to prepare for disasters. We are proud to be this program’s primary corporate sponsor.
The Georgia Emergency Management Agency-Office of Homeland Security (GEMA) launched Ready Georgia in January 2008. The partnership has enabled us to further help our customers in communities throughout Georgia get educated about preparedness and get involved in the process in their hometowns.

“With The Home Depot being a resource for emergency supplies, and our ongoing support in response to emergencies, the partnership was a natural fit for us,” said Jeff Partin, manager of safety operations and crisis management for The Home Depot.

“We were there at the state capitol when Gov. Sonny Perdue and GEMA launched the Ready Georgia campaign,” said Partin.  “We presented Gov. Perdue with a Ready kit of his very own for the governor’s mansion.”

The Home Depot and Ready Georgia hosted a scavenger hunt for a group of Atlanta school children to help them understand the fundamentals of preparedness.  And to further help Georgia’s children prepare, we incorporated the messages of Ready Georgia into our Georgia Kids Workshops held in September, National Preparedness Month.

In addition to the events we’ve been able to take part in, our Georgia stores carry information on preparing for all sorts of disasters, and we donated Ready kits that Georgians have been able to use to get the preparedness process started.  In December, Ready Georgia awarded Ready kits to residents who created custom checklists and emergency plans on the program Web site, www.ready.ga.gov/user/register – to encourage people to ring in the New Year ready.

“During the first two years of support for Ready Georgia, we have been able to reach nearly 1 million people with the campaign message, and our goal going into year three is to get even more Georgians prepared,” said Partin.