The South Atlantic Conference’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training graduated 16 participants who completed 21 hours of instruction over three days. Eighteen individuals enrolled in the course, which ran from Tuesday through Thursday, and combined classroom instruction with hands-on emergency response exercises.
Participants practiced bandaging techniques; learned victim rescue methods, including rug drags and chair carries; and concluded the training with a realistic disaster simulation featuring volunteer actors with mock injuries. The course also included live fire extinguisher demonstrations, and hands-on training conducted by fire safety professionals.
Upon completing the course, graduates received emergency response backpacks, safety vests, Adventist Community Services shirts, hard hats, and water shutoff tools. Victor Maddox, D.Min., CERT instructor and Adventist Community Services director for the Southern Union Conference, and Pam Evans provided comprehensive training manuals, and encouraged participants to register with their local fire departments and CERT coordinators for future deployment during emergencies.
Another community initiative focused on expressing appreciation to residents and workers throughout Orangeburg, S.C. Coordinated by the South Atlantic Conference Youth Department in partnership with Community Services, volunteers assembled 200 “Blessing Bags” containing personal care items, including soap, lotion, tissues, candy, hot chocolate, and notepads.
Each bag also included a Bible verse and a handwritten note of appreciation from the South Atlantic Conference. The bags were made available in the main pavilion, where church members could add personal messages before distributing them throughout the community.
Many of the Blessing Bags were presented to hotel housekeepers and other local workers serving Camp Meeting guests. Organizers reported an enthusiastic response from both volunteers and recipients, and said the success of the project could lead to doubling production to 400 Blessing Bags during next year’s Camp Meeting.
South Atlantic | August 2026
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