Spoof meets serious in the Stanislaus County Library’s summer event program that allows teenagers to become informed on ways to prepare for safety in the face of an unlikely disaster: a zombie apocalypse.
While there may not be gore or teenagers running from reawakened dead people, the Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Program is a fun way for library staff to draw connections between zombies in popular culture, literature and television to the real world disasters individuals could face in their everyday lives.
“Zombies are really big in pop culture right now and we thought this would be a fun and engaging way to present serious information to teens,” said Laura Ferrell, Stanislaus County community outreach coordinator. “At the core of this zombie survival guide approach is a focus on safety in any disaster situation, but this allows us to convey it in a fun way.”
Participating libraries in Salida, Modesto, Ceres, and Turlock will are playing host to Stanislaus County Safety Officer David Becker who will present tips instrumental to surviving a potential zombie apocalypse before allowing the teenagers to assemble safety kits themselves. From water bottles to glow sticks, surgical masks to hand wipes, teenagers will choose life saving tools to keep on hand in the case that an unexpected disaster should strike. While the approach is light hearted, at the core of the library’s mission is a serious message about the importance of preparation and communication prior to a catastrophe.
“We’re hoping that this engrains in them some safety awareness and that they will be more prepared in the event that something happens whether that’s a zombie apocalypse or a more likely event such as a flood or an earthquake,” said Ferrell. “We want to start a conversation about the importance of things like memorizing phone numbers and having kits like the ones they will be making on hand should disaster strike.”
The Zombie Preparedness Program will take place at the Turlock Library at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday and is geared towards 13 to 18 year olds.
