A message from Morgan Freeman,

PLAN!T NOW co-founder:

“As we have already seen this year in Alabama, Missouri and other places around the U.S. and the world, severe weather can threaten all of us. Often, it is the poorest and least prepared among us that suffer the worst devastation.

PLAN!T NOW provides scholarships to college students severely impacted by severe weather, funds for students to enter fields where they will find new ways to protect vulnerable coastal regions, creates public education campaigns and assists in rebuilding efforts. With new severe weather problems seemingly every week, we could use your support. I encourage you to learn more about PLAN!T NOW, and consider donating whatever you can. Thank you.”

 PLAN!T NOW advocates empowerment of people through information and connection, and creates dialogue between people and organizations preparing for and dealing with natural and human-made disasters. Operating with the understanding that no matter where you live, a natural disaster can happen at any time, PLAN!T NOW advocates the power of preparedness.

 

General Fund - Introduction

Across the United States, residents face severe weather risks that range from hurricanes along multiple coastlines, large fires and earthquakes along the west coast, and tornadoes and flooding nearly nationwide, depending on the season. Severe weather is a concern to all communities, as residents work to react to the whims of nature and to recover after the disaster has passed.

PLAN!T NOW focuses on creating more aware and prepared communities, connecting those at risk of natural and man-made disasters with information that can help them better face the next storm, to better arm each other with the knowledge of what weather threats they can encounter and how to protect their families, their property and their communities.

 Residents in areas like New Orleans, Galveston, Grenada and Haiti know all too well how quickly severe weather can alter their landscape. All it takes is one storm.

PLAN!T NOW was formed in 2004 after Hurricane Ivan, a Category 5 storm, struck the island nation of Grenada, reducing its rain forest to shrubs, removing roofs from 90 percent of homes, and killing dozens. Originally formed as the Grenada Relief Fund, we assisted in recovery projects in the country, furthering the understanding that appropriate preparedness measures can have a significant positive impact on how a community fares during a storm.

 The lesson is this: Disaster happens when preparation doesn’t.

Today, Grenada Relief Fund has become PLAN!T NOW, which focuses on preparation for a broad range of natural and man-made disasters. Our work has included scholarship awards to students impacted by major storms like hurricanes Katrina and Rita; helping rebuild homes in the Gentilly neighborhood in New Orleans on the fifth anniversary of Katrina; and educating North Carolinians about storm preparedness kits.

This year and beyond, we will also work to further the cause of children’s education as a means of improving preparedness measures. Through these projects, we aim to provide preparedness tools to all communities, touching the lives of those at risk for severe weather disasters.

Help us expand our reach, because for too many today, preparedness is an afterthought or even out of reach.

We cannot stop storms from occurring, but with your donation, we can stop them from destroying the lives of many.

 

Young Meteorologist Program

PLAN!T NOW's Young Meteorologist Program takes you on a severe weather preparedness adventure where you'll encounter lightning, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and winter storms - all while learning about severe weather science and safety.

Developed in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service, the American Meteorological Society and the National Education Association, the Young Meteorologist Program offers a safe, non-threatening learning environment that shows kids what they need to do to prepare now to protect themselves and help their families when a real storm comes.

The Young Meteorologist Program is an innovative, digital evolution of the NOAA National Weather Service's famed Owlie Skywarn program, which educates kids on the dangers of severe storms and how to protect themselves. Since its inception, the Owlie Skywarn program has found fun ways to aid countless educators and meteorologists in communicating to students and their communities how to survive weather crises.

Your support of this program will allow YMP to reach students across the country, providing a fun, engaging method of promoting learning in science, math and reading through gameplay. This program is constantly assessed by a panel of weather science and education experts and will involve student game-testing across the country in 2011.

To learn more about how YMP works and how you can get involved with the project, visit www.youngmeteorologist.org

 

P!N Scholarships

"This scholarship changed my life because it made balancing school expenses, work, and my various commitments to service organizations much more manageable. …Other students whose lives are affected by storms need to have this opportunity to pursue their academic goals. I encourage you to give students like me a chance to focus on their education."

-William Stoudt, 2009 P!N HRS recipient

 

PLAN!T NOW’s flagship scholarship opportunity was developed to assist students in four-year institutions of higher learning who have been affected by severe weather, and those who are going to enter the disaster planning and disaster mitigation fields in their careers.

 The P!N Hurricane Relief Scholarship Program is more than a fund for tuition aid, it's a vessel for creating preparedness advocates that use their experiences to encourage others to move preparedness from an afterthought to a way of life. Our scholarship recipients have gone on to give back in significant ways to their communities, and we will select future recipients who do the same.

P!N understands that the financial and social hardships some storms bring can have negative impacts on a student's performance in school. Thus, when making award decisions, P!N HRS takes the whole person into account. Specifically, P!N HRS winners:

- Show a commitment to improving and excelling academically, even if they have hit a roadblock.

- Are active in their local communities as volunteers and youth activists helping to light the way in the aftermath of a severe storm.

- Show the ability to push through difficult circumstances, transforming tragedy into lessons learned and sharing that positive, forward-thinking spirit with others.

P!N HRS also includes a scholarship known as P!N Dreamkeepers. These scholarships help students at community colleges studying weather sciences that will advance the storm preparedness movement. P!N Dreamkeepers is part of P!N's partnership with the education non-profit Scholarship America. P!N Dreamkeepers tuition aid in 2010 supported community college students in Miami, Fla., one of the nation’s largest colleges in one of the most vulnerable storm zones.

In 2011, PLAN!T NOW will add a scholarship presented in partnership with the American Meteorological Society.

 

 How your support helps

PLAN!T NOW’s programs are developed alongside well-known allies from the fields of weather science, education and disaster relief, but we provide these services to the public at no charge. The largest hurdle a nonprofit organization faces is the ability to grow its programs to have the maximum impact.

Your giving can be directed to aid one of our programs, or to benefit our overall work. With our donation, please indicate how you would like to direct your contribution - toward our scholarship efforts, toward our educational efforts, or toward our operational fund, which allows us to administer these programs. With your help, we can create a better community-wide knowledge of disasters and how to prepare for them. Together, we can save lives and property and ensure that all communities have the tools to face these challenges.

Contact joshk@planitnow.org for more options to support our mission.

 

To learn more about severe weather preparedness and other P!N programs, please visit www.planitnow.org.