On October 11, the Augustana Student Medical Reserve Corps (ASMRC) hosted a Zombie Run on campus to promote disaster awareness and preparedness.

The second annual Zombie Run was hosted by the Kim Phan, a Junior at Augustana majoring in Pre Medicine, Biochemistry and minoring in Japanese, and Shayla Conrad a Junior majoring in (Shayla never got back to me so I don’t know what she’s majoring in) co-chairs of the ASMRC.

Each team receives a “starter pack” with five cards that represent items for an emergency preparedness kit. The designated path these groups must follow covers the slough path, around Erickson, around Westerlin and back into the Oasis. There are ten tables on this path where contestants can collect cards with resources to create an emergency preparedness kit. At each table, the group can choose to exchange two cards at random or continue.

The team with the best components for an emergency kit wins an official MRC disaster preparedness kit.

The Zombie Run received its name because the event takes place near Halloween and to attract students to participate in a disaster-oriented activity. The participants are allowed to choose to prepare a tornado kit or zombie apocalypse kit.

Kate Meyer, an Augustana class of 1997 alum, served as a liaison for the Zombie Run. She works the position of Manager of Emergency Planning and Response for the Rock Island Health Department and is a Medical Reserve Corps coordinator for Rock Island county.

Meyer alongside Irene Mekus, a Senior at Augustana, initiated the Augustana Student Medical Reserve Corps on campus three years ago to increase emergency preparedness awareness, to promote public health, and increase hours for volunteers.

The ASMRC received a grant from the school to be able to provide CPR and first aid training to volunteers, national incident management system training by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided twice a year and to buy shirts and honor cords for training completion for volunteers, among other things.

“People have a good sense of themselves when they volunteer and I think that’s a giant positive, to help promote that feeling,” Meyer said.

Meyer: “In the Rock Island Health Department we are held responsible if there’s an emergency. If there was a pandemic and we got vaccine from our government to inoculate our county, there’s 147,000 people in this county, and we have 48 employees at the health department. So we rely on our medical reserve corps to support us in that role.”