BP’s 2025 in Review

Last year was a big one for Bainbridge Prepares as the organization moved into its 15th year of operation, struggled through some growing pains, and achieved some crucial organizational milestones. We reached out to Bainbridge Prepares Teams to get their recaps of last year’s accomplishments. This is what the teams shared.

Bainbridge Emergency Auxiliary Radio Service (BEARS)

In 2025, the BEARS leadership team put together a series of four training videos for the 110+ BEARS Emergency Communications Operators. The videos addressed the following:

• The threat of a major emergency impacting Bainbridge Island.

• The steps to take in case of a major emergency and how to activate.

• The setup of emergency communications equipment at a Disaster Hub in the event of a declared emergency.

• The set up and operation of radios used for communications between a Disaster Hub and the Emergency Operations Center at the Ted Spearman Justice Center.

BIGWEELS (Bainbridge Islanders Getting Workers Everywhere in Emergencies and Lots of Snow)

The BIGWEELS Team worked on developing an incident workflow for incoming transportation requests and dispatching of vehicles.

CERT volunteers at a training exercise.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

The Bainbridge Island Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a volunteer-based initiative that equips citizens with essential emergency response skills. CERT's training programs empower community members to respond to disaster scenarios in their own neighborhoods, ensuring immediate support even when emergency services are overwhelmed or delayed.  

During 2025, CERT conducted a Basic Training Academy and supported numerous community events across the Island. Highlights include support to the annual Rotary Auction, National Night Out, and Day of Preparedness event.  

The Team is offering a CERT Basic Academy in March and is looking forward to another great year. Additional information about signing up for the CERT Basic Academy can be found here.

CERT volunteers learning how to use fire extinguishers

Flotilla

During 2025, Flotilla began scheduling Resource Nets over amateur radio. These Resource Nets simulated check-ins and readiness status reports for vessels and crew.

The team has four of these scheduled for 2026.

Flotilla also began work on adding a mission that would provide water-based evacuation for people who might become trapped by a wildfire.

Left to Right: Co-lead Tami Allen, Marine Services Officer Jon Bingham, BIFD Deputy Chief Jeremy Mendola, COBI Emergency Manager Anne LeSage, and BP Executive Director Dominique Cantwell discussing evacuation routes while consulting a fire district map.

Food Resilience

The Food Resilience Team created a Food Storage Brief and began presenting it to Map Your Neighborhood and community groups.

It also expanded its grower education program.

By activating the Veg Club and Fruit Club networks, it was able to give more than 3,000 pounds of food to Helpline House to address the local food insecurity crisis.

Logistics

The Logistics Team was instrumental in preparing the Bainbridge Island Parks Lande Site for communications and gear storage.

The team worked on making the supplies at all Disaster Hubs consistent and complete.

It also continued work on developing its RefTab inventory system.

The team participated in the Fort Ward Community Hall Disaster Hub storage shed project.

Map Your Neighborhood (MYN)

The MYN Team continued to bring more neighborhoods into the program, providing all of them with crucial materials, training, and support.

In addition, they developed a vast Google classroom of content for participating neighborhood captains.

Psychological First Aid

The  Psychological First Aid Team (PFA) led by Linda Semlitz, Roger Midgett, and Madi Williamson provided two Psychological First Aid trainings and one Verbal De-Escalation training. All of the training included both didactic work and opportunities to practice using scenarios that are likely to occur in any disaster impacting Bainbridge Island.

The team also worked on networking with other teams and resources in the community.

The PFA team used 2025 to plan for additional training topics for 2026 such as Moral Injury in First Responders. 

TechOps

The TechOps Team led by Rakesh Bharaina and Pascal Schuback (who is also the Bainbridge Prepares Program Director) had a busy year setting up and managing technology for different purposes and events. This is some of what they accomplished:

• Completed the hardware buildout of the Emergency Operations Center at the Ted Spearman Justice Center, including antenna infrastructure, layout, interference, initial installation, programing and grounding.

• Created the infrastructure for BPNet, an Island-exclusive emergency communications network. Created a draft design for installing BPNet at the ferry terminal.

• Reviewed and updated Emergency Operations Center (EOC) operational processes.

• Participated in the EOC Open House.

• Remodeled the COBI EOC Annex (at City Hall) radio room including a new desk/counter radio setup, rerouting of the antenna infrastructure, installation of new power supplies, and new radio programming.

• Procured radio frequencies needed to support both amateur and professional radio for the EOC and island operations.

• Integrated the Team’s drones with BIFD operations and conducted drone training and exercises including the Chilly Hilly bike event, the Rotary Auction, and prescribed burns at Bloedel Reserve. Participated in two active incident responses and flew situational awareness missions for the 4th of July Parade.

• Repurposed the Strawberry Hill Radio Tower for use in emergency communications.

• Designed a draft site layout at the Bainbridge Island Parks Lande Facility to support Conex containers, two 200 square foot structures, and a shed to store emergency communications hardware.

• Submitted a Huney Rotary grant application for a 37KW generator, 2,000 gallons of propane storage, and replacement of the power transfer switch in the Parks Lande Administration building that will provide power to the site and tower.

• Completed underground utility work on the Lande site in support of a generator and structures.

• Designed new antennas and mounting locations and assessed infrastructure needs at the Lande site.

• Worked with the BP partnership, Team Leads, and external agencies in identifying communication requirements. Also identified existing communication platforms, ownership, expected use, contractual agreements, and capacity issues.

• Standardized all the Disaster Hub radio kits.

• Developed the BP Volunteer Portal Site.

• Provided maintenance on the Senior Center network, which is used during Severe Weather Shelter activation.

• Helped build the Disaster Hub storage shed at the Fort Ward Community Center.

• Supported the Rotary Auction with BPNet setup, event day coordination, and post-event teardown.

Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH)

The WASH Team deployed Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs) of water for emergencies at the Disaster Hubs. They carried out the first exercise of deploying a water IBC and transferring it to other locations.

The team participated in numerous community education events, including leading a workshop titled “Residential Water Wells: Survive and Prepare for Emergency Use.”

They also worked on identifying critical water sites on the island, including developing GIS map layers for post-incident evaluation of the sites.

BP Teamwork

The other BP teams we didn’t hear back from certainly also completed important work during the year. Listed here is just a small fraction of the great things people can do when they work together for the common good.