April 20, 2023 | Lezlie Borak, OKMRC

Lezlie Borak spoke about the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps and its role in local disaster response.

 

The Rotary Club of Chickasha met Thursday, April 20, 2023. Rotarian Mitch Williams led the club in singing "Help Somebody Today".

 

Rotarian of the Day Delaney Fitch introduced the speaker, Lezlie Borak. Borak is the State Coordinator for the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps (OKMRC).

 

 

The Medical Reserve Corps is a federal program organized at the state level. Coordinating local volunteers at the state level provides consistency, a broader volunteer base, and centralized applications and credentials. There are approximately 7,000 trained volunteers in the OKMRC today. These are organized based on state health districts, and units are usually activated by district. Grady County is part of District 6, with McClain, Pottawatomie, Seminole, and Hughes counties. As of April 17, Aaron Scott is the new OKMRC coordinator for the district. Scott was unable to attend the meeting as OKMRC was responding to tornado victims in Pottawatomie County.

 

Locals are the first at the scene of a disaster and the last to leave, Borak stated. After first responders, OKMRC mobilizes to address the community's immediate needs after a disaster, in conjunction with other private organizations. And after federal response has come and gone, OKMRC remains to meet ongoing needs.

 

Borak explained that OKMRC has around twice as many nonmedical volunteers as medical volunteers—and that nonmedical volunteers are just as important. In other words, medical credentials are not required to volunteer. The application and credential process is now handled online at OKMRC.org. After applying, volunteers have four required trainings and additional optional trainings available to them.

 

OKMRC's impact was extremely evident through the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, OKMRC had around 1900 medical and 6300 nonmedical volunteers. These volunteers donated $2.5 million worth of time in 2021, assisting in vaccinations and other related programs.