Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island held a readiness fair for individual, family and community readiness at the Navy Exchange/Commissary complex on the Seaplane Base, April 25.

There were forty-three organizations from around the area who participated in the event. The goal of the fair was to educate the attendees on being prepared for any event and the resources available to them should anything happen.

“It was a good turn out for vendors,” said Kathleen Johnson, Work and Family Life Consultant from the Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC), a coordinator for the event.

“This covers a variety of things from financial readiness to volunteer readiness, whatever type of readiness you can think of is what we hope to have collected today from this group of folks,” she added.

In honor of April being the Month of The Military Child, the opening ceremony for the event included raising the Children’s Memorial Flag in recognition of the child deaths through violence in the U.S. This is done on the fourth Friday in April every year.

“When we raise the flag, we take a moment of silence; it’s a good thing that we take the time and have that moment of silence for those children, but silence isn’t the answer,” said Dave Thomason, of FFSC.

“We need to be loud, we need to be heard, and when we see children not being treated properly we need to do something. We need to speak up and make a difference; we need to end the children who are dying to violence in our lifetime and certainly in our children’s,” he added.

People took the opportunity to gather information for themselves as well as their commands so they can bring it back and ensure their Sailors and families are prepared for some of the rigors of being a part of the U.S. Navy.

“I’m in charge of setting up a family preparedness day in August and I wanted to get all the information that I could get to prepare reservists for deployment and military life,” said Chief Storekeeper (SW/AW) Gregory Hubble, of Navy Operational Support Center Whidbey Island.

The location also helped generate interest from passersby who haven’t needed any special services or aren’t very involved in the community.

“Things like this are of pretty good value because you catch people who haven’t really gone out of the way to look for (resources),” said Aviation Structural Mechanic Airman Keith Helwig, of Electronic Attack Squadron 139.

“It’s one thing to know that you have all the facilities at Fleet and Family Service and you can look for them if you need to, but this helps more for the folks who are just getting groceries, then out of nowhere there’s this and it makes them think about what’s offered to them,” he added.

The Readiness Fair is held twice annually with the next one anticipated to be in November.’