The Flagler County school district has the Education Foundation. Flagler County Emergency Management has Flagler County Assist, a non-profit corps of volunteers who support numerous events and provide assistance during emergencies, including wildfires, hurricanes, storms small and large, public events such as the 4th of July in Flagler Beach (when it retuirns as we once new it, anyway) and the annual Pink on Parade 5 K race in Palm Coast’s Town Center.
And now, Flagler County Assist (FCA), a home-grown organization, is celebrating 40 years of service to the people of Flagler County.
The organization got its start in April of 1985 when three high school students meeting in the Media Center of Flagler Palm Coast High School decided to use Citizen Band (CB) radios to help people. With no training or guidance, the three started monitoring the CB Emergency Channel 9 to relay distress calls to authorities. Just weeks later the three found themselves thrown into the worst disaster to ever hit Flagler County up to that point, the Black Friday May 17 Wildfire.
The fire destroyed 135 homes and cut telephone communications making CB radio one of the only public accessible methods of communication. Members struggled with all kinds of reports but managed to guide evacuees to a shelter and helped relay messages. After the wildfire other CB users who helped joined the organization and FCA grew onward from there. In 1986 FCA began to take on public service events such as parades and 5K races. A Thanksgiving parade and an Oktoberfest 5k run were among some of the first events covered by the new organization. Members also began to receive training to further improve safety and services.
The organization also continued to support the community during disasters such as the devastating 1998 Wildfires and numerous other storms and hurricanes.
In the years that followed Flagler County Assist–previously known as React–has set up storm spotter networks, members received specialized training for storm spotting, traffic management and helicopter safety. FCA also moved to more advanced communication systems such as the General Mobile Radio Service and Amateur Radio.
Today Flagler County Assist, led by Bob Pickering (the well-known weather specialist at Flagler County Emergency Management), Maryann Pickering, Robert Creal (the former Flagler Beach fire chief) and Ed Barth–continues to provide emergency and public service support to the community. From storm spotter to traffic management to even helicopter landing zones FCA members continue the tradition started 40 years ago.
