To motivate people to do personal or family preparation for a long-term emergency, SimplyPrepare.Org is sponsoring a contest in February of 2020. You can use this contest to dramatically increase your preparedness and resilience for nearly any disaster or catastrophe! Three $100 prizes will be awarded to the three persons who prepared the most and who informed people they personally know about the need for preparation, and how to prepare.
Registration Deadline: Midnight on Feb 28th. So you can register today and get started becoming more prepared!
There are two ways to register: Either email tim@gridemergency.org with the subject line “new contest participant” or text Tim at 412-390-4675 and start the text with: new contest participant. In the text tell me your name or screen name (what you’d like me to call you.) I will respond to confirm your participation. If you plan to use both email and text, make sure to give me your full contact information so I don’t get confused by three people named Brandon or four people named Jessie.
Participation requirements: You must make four brief weekly reports of what you’ve done, either by text or email. This helps you stay focused on practical efforts. You can be no more than a day early or two days later for your four reports (based on the date you register.)
What counts towards winning: 1. Reading sections of the website or the Preparation Guide (either the 2017 version or the 2020 version when published) 2. Buying supplies or equipment that will better enable you to survive a long-term crisis [Note: If you have very little money to spend, see the option at the bottom of this page.] 3. Learning how to use the new equipment or testing it out. 4. Organizing equipment or materials you already have 5. Adapting what you have or creating do-it-yourself survival materials (for people on budgets.) 6. Informing people who you know personally about the vulnerability of the grid 7. Informing them of the resources on this website and encouraging them to use these resources. 8. Useful feedback and suggestions on improving the website or program.
What DOESN’T count toward winning: 1. Preparation that you’ve done before the day that you register for the contest. [I’m glad that you’ve prepared some or a lot, but I can’t give credit toward winning.] 2. Anything that you’ve done after midnight on the 28th day of your participation. [I encourage everyone to keep learning, however!] 3. Watching endless videos on prepping or emergency preparation. 4. Informing people about the problem who you barely know or don’t know. [For this issue it’s generally more productive to talk to people who already know you and have some respect for you, rather than strangers. You will want to follow-up to make sure they are not becoming overwhelmed or fearful.] 5. Total hours. It’s more important to have useful accomplishments. For instance, some people might spend an hour shopping for the perfect water purification system, while someone else might have purchased three essential things in that time. 6. Total money spent.
Validation of “semi-finalists.” I will contact the top participants to validate that they really did much of what they claimed to have done. My immediate family members and close friends cannot win the monetary prizes.
Announcing the winners: Winners will be announced on the website in early April. Because I encourage people to keep their preparation secret or almost secret, I will not publish names at that time. However I will describe their noteworthy efforts. Andrew McKeon of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation has agreed to certify the contest. He will be mailing out the $100 money orders.
Here are two examples of weekly reports. One has too little detail. One is about right. It’s important to be specific.
[too little detail] Tim, it’s Alice Dogcatcher. This week I read some of your website for an hour. I also bought enough food for a month, and a way to cook it all. I have a way to collect and purify water. I told three family members and two friends about your website.
[about right] Mr. Ready for Anything reporting: This week I bought a 20 pound bag of rice, and 20 pounds of lentils. I also ordered a small kerosene cooking stove and bought five gallons of kerosene. I bought an extra trashcan to collect water from the roof, and have a saw if I need to cut one of the aluminum downspouts. I did text five out-of-town friends to tell them that I was getting serious about emergency preparedness. I told them about the free Preparedness guide you wrote and offered to send it to them if they wanted it. Three said they wanted it, so I emailed it to them.
OPTION FOR PEOPLE WITH VERY LITTLE MONEY: If you have almost no extra money, you can do four things: 1. Inform people (friends and neighbors who you know well, who would become your safety net in a crisis.) In a sense, you’d be helping them survive by urging them to prepare, and later they’d likely return the favor. 2. Inform and educate local nonprofits and nearby places of worship, so that they could also become part of your safety net. 3. Become an expert in urban survival know-how, so that your knowledge makes you almost indispensable in a long-term disaster. 4. Do even more economizing and budgeting so that you can afford at least a few weeks of supplies. — These things can count toward winning the $100 if you don’t have money to do normal preparation.