Southeast Nebraska Medical Reserve Corps to Receive National Award
RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2020
Lincoln, Neb. — On May 19, The Southeast Nebraska Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Unit was notified that they will be the recipient of the 2020 Excellence in Medical Reserve Corps Key Priorities Award presented by the National Medical Reserve Corps Program housed under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Medical Reserve Corps is a national network of volunteers, organized locally to improve the health and safety of their communities. The MRC network comprises approximately 175,000 volunteers in roughly 850 community-based units located throughout the United States and its territories. The Excellence in Medical Reserve Corps Key Priorities Award honors the Southeast Nebraska MRC Unit for their excellence in developing and enhancing MRC unit programming to build the unit capabilities in MRC priority areas, which the Southeast Nebraska MRC displayed during and after the 2019 Nebraska Flooding Disaster.
During the March 2019 Flooding Disaster the Southeast Nebraska MRC was quick to volunteer to travel outside of their jurisdiction, to provide assistance their sister unit the Eastern Nebraska/Western Iowa MRC. Both MRCs worked side-by-side in the assistance in the response to the Sarpy, Douglas, and Washington counties, which had experienced severe devastation from the flood, with sheltering displaced residents. The MRC Units provided leadership and organization within the shelters, and also provided psychological first-aid and first-aid to those displaced by the floods. Throughout the disaster response, the Southeast Nebraska MRC continued their volunteerism, with 86 percent of their membership donating their time to help those affected during the disaster.
Upon the transition to recovery, the Southeast Nebraska MRC Unit Leader Cody Meredith and his team have worked tirelessly in developing more local and regional agreements for service, enhancing collaboration with local and regional partners, and training with other organizations and MRCs to better assist in the event of another disaster event. Since their nomination for this award, the Southeast Nebraska MRC has assisted local response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and have continued their service to their local communities by assisting local health departments in contact tracing.
“We are here to help fill in the gaps to make sure everyone is successful (in helping their community),” said Unit Leader Cody Meredith. “We help communities not only during an emergency, but with community events and training as well year round. We have an amazing team and the success of it (the Southeast Nebraska MRC) is because of everyone on the team. One of the biggest successes in the Medical Reserve Corps is when you need some extra help and you ask one of your neighboring units for help and they rush in to help, that is the way mutual-aid should be.”
The award is scheduled to be presented via a private webinar on June 2 at 1 p.m. CT. Those interested in joining the Southeast Nebraska Medical Reserve Corps can contact them via email at senebraskamrc@gmail.com.