I recently visited the Moose Cree First Nation in Northern Ontario off the James Bay coast for the launch of the Red Cross Be Ready program. Be Ready aims to help the community prepare for disasters specific to the community. It also has its own special mascot, Ready
Goose, to help children learn about disaster preparedness.
Too cute and totally prepared for disasters, Ready Goose's story is too good not to share on the blog.
So who is Ready Goose?
Well, when Ready Goose was just a little gosling, he was scared of everything. If he heard thunder, he hid. If the power went out, he honked and hid. If it was spring ice break-up time, he hid, honked and covered his eyes. He thought if he couldn’t see what scared him, it would go away. It didn’t.
As Ready Goose got older he realized that you can’t hide from the things that scare you. Thunderstorms happen. Power outages happen. The spring ice break-up happens.
This is when Ready Goose learned a very important lesson that changed him forever: If you don’t want to be scared, you just need to be prepared.
Ready Goose decided to learn everything he could about the things that scared him and what he could do to stay safe in thunderstorms, power outages, floods, forest fires and blizzards. The more Ready Goose learned, the less scared he became.
Ready Goose decided he was going to make sure that no child in his community felt they needed to hide when they heard thunder, honk when the power went out, or cover their eyes during the spring ice break-up.
He had an important job to do. Ready Goose went to work as an emergency preparedness expert at the Canadian Red Cross and developed the "Be Red Cross Ready" program.
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Three cheers to welcome Ready Goose to the team!
Want to know more about Ready Goose? Download this activity book for kids.