Jennifer, my twin sister, loves to volunteer. She’s always getting up early on a weekend morning to go help out with an event or she’s coming up with an interesting and effective way to show her support. She’s been invited to the White House on several occasions because of her volunteerism. Today she took vacation time to volunteer as a “victim” for a city-wide emergency drill.
Picture it: A bunch of volunteers are supposed to be victims for a disaster, and emergency service personnel practice what to do. They take care of any logistical problems now so that they are prepared when a real disaster strikes.
Early in the morning, Jennifer and the other volunteers are preparing to be victims. As Jennifer watches a team paint third-degree burns on select volunteers, or adding a protuding bone out of someone’s leg, she is assigned a name and a condition.
Name: Sid Vicious
Condition: hysteria
That’s right. Jennifer got to play the hysterical woman throughout the drill, screaming, panicking and being a pain. I bet she gave an Oscar-worthy performance, no doubt drawing from her wealth of experience. 
At the end of the day, she got to take her T-shirt home that reads “I Survived Being a Victim” with the emergency drill name on the back of the shirt.
It’s not exactly a relaxing way to spend vacation time, but that’s how Jennifer spends her time off.
I’ve always wondered how they got people for those things. . . when they show them in action on the news, I just know I could never do it because I’d be laughing during the whole thing, just not an actor little old me. But to those who can do it, great stuff, and I bet it’s all quite helpful for the first responders too.
Lois
I have seen practice drills from a distance, but have never been involved in one. They seem interesting… I also wondered how they chose people to participate…
Good for Jennifer!
I was impressed with the professional “moulagers” – the people that do the make-up of injuries. They came with their Mayo-size jar of “casualty-grade blood”.
I did do my hysteria well. I carried the shoe of my friend that was given a fractured foot and kept freaking out while hugging the shoe. May it be the only time they ever send me to the psych ward