FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    John Campbell, Lee County Emergency Management
                (941) 477-3614

FORT MYERS, Fla. (February 22, 2001) – Second-graders from Sanibel Elementary School will be honored in a ceremony Friday (Feb. 23) for being one of the first school classes in 2001 to successfully complete the "Stormbusters" hazardous weather training.

The event will be at 11 a.m. at Sanibel Elementary School, 3840 Sanibel-Captiva Road. ABC-7, WZVN-TV Meteorologist Eric Salna will be on hand to present certificates to the younsters. Representatives from the School District, American Red Cross, Lee County, Sanibel and the National Weather Service will join him. The event coincides with Florida Hazardous Weather Awareness Week, which is Feb. 19-23.

Members of the media are invited to attend the event.

"Stormbusters" is a community education project developed in 1993 by Salna and David Saniter, program manager for Lee County Emergency Management. The project was developed in cooperation with the Safety Task Force of the Lee County School District. The program won an Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties in 1994 and was subsequently adopted by other Southwest Florida counties.

This school year, more than 16,000 "Stormbuster" coloring books were distributed to elementary schools in the six-county region. The purpose of the books is to teach young children to have a healthy respect for hazardous weather events that occur in this area, while emphasizing precautions they and their families should take.

There are two different coloring books. One focuses on tornadoes and thunderstorms, and the other on hurricanes. A teacher/parent guide accompanies the books providing information on all of the topics covered. At the conclusion of the instruction, each student is presented a "Stormbusters" certificate declaring him or her an official "STORMBUSTER."