Vancouver — The Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency’s annual 30 Days, 30 Ways game starts with September, challenging players to find ways to prepare for emergencies and spread word to others to do the same.
The full rules are at 30Days30Ways.com. Players receive a daily challenge at 7 each morning, either through the site or social media.
Players can submit replies through throughout the month answering the day’s preparedness challenge.
Submissions will be reviewed for creativity, connection to the task and — since it’s a social media game meant to get the word out about preparing for emergencies — online virality.
For instance, last year, for the “Everybody Poops” challenge, where players were challenged on how to handle sanitation, Facebook commenters shared camping tips.
And jokes: “Where will you go after a disaster strikes,” posted one, along with a photo of a toilet seat attached to a 5-gallon bucket.
There will also be weekly challenges, and this year’s winners will get Amazon.com gift cards.
The aim, the agency said, is to get people talking about emergency preparedness, and through that, make sure more people are in better shape should the unexpected happen.
“Being prepared for emergencies should be as common as wearing your seat belt, and yet nearly every emergency preparedness survey conducted over the past 11 years indicates that 40 to 80 percent of people are unprepared to face certain hazards,” the agency said in a news release.
The 911 and emergency planning agency cooked up the idea in 2010, and said it has, in the last 5 years, recorded the completion of over 18,000 readiness tasks from players in 44 states and 38 countries.
The game runs through September, which is National Preparedness Month.
More on the competition is available at the website, and players can follow along on Facebook at 30 Days, 30 Ways and on Twitter under @30Days_30Ways.
