Photos from Emergency Sheltering Exercise and the Best of Town and Gown

Yesterday, several students from the Isenberg School of Management  spent the late afternoon with me at the Mullins Center in Amherst where an emergency sheltering exercise was being conducted involving hundreds of volunteers, including many students (kudos to nursing and others), and multiple organizations such as UMass Amherst and the Medical Reserve Corps of Hampshire County.

Some of my students are overnighting there on cots to learn from the experience and since they work as interns in emergency preparedness or have been fire fighters. We were especially interested in this well-timed major emergency preparedness exercise since I am teaching a course this semester at the Isenberg School on Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare.  Mr. Jeff Hescock, who was one of five guest lecturers in my class, and who is the Director of  UMass  Emergency Management and Business Continuity was one of the leaders of this fascinating sheltering exercise.

The Mullins Center is usually the venue for basketball and hockey games as well as major entertainment events and to see it transformed into a shelter that could serve as a refuge after a natural disaster, such as a tornado or winter storm (and we have had our share of these as I have written about many times on this blog and in various OpEds).

Two of my students and I, along with town officials, such as our Town Manager, John Musante, and our Fire Chief (it was great to see them both and my students were impressed), received a grand tour from an Amherst Public health official who was wonderful.

The photos that I took at this special community event that I have posted here illustrate the scope of planning involved. The setup began at 1PM with the shelter opening at 3PM to simulate a real-life sheltering response to a natural disaster. Since those who are being sheltered become a society for a time period safety and rules are important.

There were registration desks upon entry and those who had volunteered to be "victims" had tags given to them describing their injuries which were made to look quite authentic.

The Mullins Center had an area with cots, an area for dining, and the menu looked quite great.

 

Since showers are located there, it is an excellent facility for an emergency shelter and it has such a large space. There were rooms for additional medical treatment and for emotional support. We also saw an ambulance inside with a very realistic victim lying on a stretcher which added to us seeing the scale and magnitude of sheltering (and planning involved),

This emergency sheltering exercise involved not only adults but also children as well as animals and the attention to detail was truly remarkable.  Children had their own area which was supplied with books, activities, and toys.

Cats were separated from dogs, who were in crates and there was an exercise area for the latter and a radio was playing for the former. We were escorted by Ms. Carol Hepburn, who is Amherst's Animal Control Officer and a legend. She used to visit our neighborhood quite often back in the day.

 

There was also an area for exotic animals including the dragon in the above photo. An exercise area for animals was constructed outside of the Mullins Center featured in the photo below.

 

We spoke with a variety of the volunteers from organizations such as the Red Cross and the Medical Reserve Corps as well as the animal care individuals who came with their trucks from central MA and from the Berkshire area.

There were even dogs to assist those who needed emotional assistance and reassurance. The adorable, huge Newfoundlander came with his owner and handler from Rhode Island.

 

 I look forward to hearing from a student later today on how the overnight experience went. He had packed up a big sleeping bag with a pillow and snacks and was prepared. The Medical Reserve Corps also had, for distribution, backpacks with First Aid kits, flashlights and a formd in a folder on which one could write critical information to keep handy.

I congratulate all involved on this very important exercise which demonstrates the best of town and gown cooperation!

Olympic Miracle on Ice in Sochi Thanks to Former UMass Hockey Goalie Jonathan Quick With Help from T.J. Oshie

This morning I have been working on the presentation that I will be giving at the INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics  & Operations Research that will take place March 30-April 1 in Boston.  The speakers are to deliver their presentations in pdf format to INFORMS by February 24 and they will be distributed to the registrants.

But since the US was playing Russia in men's hockey this morning, live on television, I could not resist spending a few minutes watching the game which went into a thrilling overtime.

The US Olympic team goalie is none other than Jonathan Quick, who played on the UMass Amherst hockey team and we would enjoy watching him at our great Mullins Center.

 

And Jonathan Quick is not the only Olympian who was a student at UMass Amherst at these Winter Games in Sochi - Thomas Pock is as well and he is playing for the Austrian hockey team.  UMass produced the nice graphic above and you can read more about our former students in this nice press release.

Today's game against Russia was a thriller - it went into overtime and then, thanks to the former North Dakota student, T.J. Oshie, 4 of his 6 shots made it in!

Since my daughter was a competitive figure skater we spent a lot of time on various ice rinks, including the ones at Lake Placid, where the Miracle on Ice took place back at the 1980 Olympics with a relatively young US hockey team beating the Russians. 

 

My daughter even had a chance to skate with the Olympian Johnny Weir in an ice show at Lake Placid a few years ago and we met his mother. 

Weir is an announcer now at this Olympics in Sochi and is doing a great job (although the US men did not medal except for the bronze in the new team event (with women)).

Photos from the Spectacular UMass Amherst Graduate Ceremonies

The day could not have been more perfect with the sun shining, flowering trees blooming,  and with gentle breezes.

Families and friends traveled from across the globe to celebrate with those who received the PhDs and Masters degrees at the Mullins Center at UMass Amherst today.


I very much enjoyed hearing our Chancellor's wonderful speech as well as the speech of the honorary degree recipient -- Mark E. Russell of Raytheon who spoke of persistence in one's endeavors  and in doing great, sustained  work so that you earn trust. I also very much appreciated him highlighting the terrific work that the NSF Engineering Research Center CASA is doing (and I sat next to its Director, Dr. David McLaughlin) in designing radars for extreme weather prediction, including tornadoes. There is a nice writeup about the graduate ceremony here.

The ceremony flowed smoothly and the pageantry was spectacular.

I especially wish to congratulate my PhD student who became Dr. Min Yu today and whose family traveled from China to recognize her and to celebrate with her. Congrats also to Dr. Davit Kachatryan who came from DC to march in the ceremonies. He had received his PhD a while back but came today since he promised his family that he would march.

Several of our doctoral students in Management Science, in Organizational Behavior, and in Strategic Management, and Finance, at the Isenberg School, came out to support the graduates (and to get a sense of what it will be like when they receive their PhD degrees). Special thanks to my doctoral students, Dong "Michelle" Li and Amir Masoumi, for taking numerous photos today.

Congratulations to all the graduate degree recipients. Your hard work and scholarship were recognized today.

With best wishes for very successful, satisfying,  and worthwhile professional careers!

Tomorrow I will be back at the Mullins Center at UMass Amherst to take part in the Isenberg School of Management undergraduate graduation ceremonies.

Figure Skating Olympians that We Have Actually Met

As the first figure skating medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics have been announced with the gold in pairs going to Zhao and Shen, a married couple from China, I thought it appropriate to share with my readers photos and reminiscences of some of the figure skating Olympians that we have actually met.

Above I have posted photos of Paul Wylie, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist in men's skating, taken at Harvard, of Sarah Hughes (the gold medalist at the 2002 Winter Olympics), after the Stars on Ice performance at the Mullins Center in Amherst with some members of the Skating Club of Amherst skaters, and of Johnny Weir with my daughter during a performance at Lake Placid in the summer of 2008, where she was training.

Paul Wylie, a graduate of Harvard, has been the leader behind the An Evening with Champions event at Harvard University, which takes place each year. It is an event that raises money for The Jimmy Fund, for cancer research. While I was a Science Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard in 2005-2006, my family and I went to this wonderful event and we got a chance to speak with Paul Wylie.

The inimitable Sarah Hughes, who has, since the above photo was taken, graduated from Yale University, and whose sister, Emily Hughes, is a student at Harvard and was an Olympic contender (who, unfortunately did not make the team this year) graciously posed with our local skaters for the photo above. Todd Eldridge, also a 2002 Olympian, but, unfortunately, not a medalist, also performed in the same show, and was fabulous.

As for Johnny Weir, who is competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, we met him in July 2008, on a rainy day, while walking on the main street in Lake Placid close to the Olympic training rinks (where the Miracle on Ice took place at the Lake Placid Games in 1980, that I have written about on this blog). Johnny Weir was walking with his mother and we stopped since he was immediately recognizable. Despite the rain, we chatted, and it was clear that the affection that he and his mother share is very special. Needless to say, when my daughter got a chance to skate in the same show as Johnny Weir, while training at Lake Placid, it was fantastic. The above photo was taken during that special performance.

We wish all the figure skaters competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver magnificent performances!