Here is my participation certificate from today at JFK airport for a security exercise. As a volunteer, I played the role of a victim or survivor of a simulated security incident. It’s designed to train first responders for unusual emergencies with smoke, confusion, and so on.
It’s both serious and fun. Serious because the first responders are training to handle actual situations. Fun because they encouraged volunteers to role play to challenge first responders. They had to respond to the situation causing the smoke, injuries, etc; get survivors and victims (role-played) to safety; handle other civilians; figure out what was happening; work out their internal teamwork; and more.
Longtime readers know I took acting lessons. While we weren’t performing for an audience, they did encourage us to give the first responders real-world challenges. I played a father whose daughter was still in the situation, which prompted me to get in their faces and demanded attention. Others played injured victims crying out in pain, delirious, and so on.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with how well they reassured me, got me out of the way, and got back to their emergency work. I just felt like, “I’m freaked out but the best thing I can do is give them space to do their work.”
Here was the card I wore:
I haven’t been to JFK in a while. Before it started we were in a building not for the public. I saw this plaque, so maybe it was a historic building:
