It starts with a story. Every part of the week serves the simulation. “We wanted to have a story that went along with it,” said Kayla Thompson, the Department of Emergency Management’s community preparedness coordinator, who helped write it, “so the students knew why they were here and why they were building these structures.” The scenario strands students at a site with no camp on it. It gives them a reason to build: in 2026, a damaged local hospital sent a request for structures by Thursday. And it moves through the week. Cell service comes back, then power, then the roads, until, as Thompson put it, “okay, we are now stable, the structures are built and we’re able to go home.”
Taylor modeled the premise on the end-of-year competitions that bring CTE students together from across Oregon, the gatherings run by SkillsUSA, FFA and other student organizations. Imagine those students on a field trip, he said, when an earthquake cuts off the roads home. “And so they’re here and we have the materials and we have the expertise, and we have the personal agency to come to a place, gather together and say, we’re going to be okay.” In a real disaster, he said, the first 72 hours are about getting people sheltered, fed, hydrated and safe, so they can move from “survival mode” into “providing mode” and start helping others. The camp asks students to do both.
Four villages, each with a real job.
Students work in one of four career tracks, called villages. Each does a job the whole camp depends on.
Builders construct emergency sheds and shelter units from kits, in pods of about six students under their own CTE teacher. In 2026 there were about 75 builders in three villages.
Culinary students cook for everyone on site from a field kitchen, under a professional chef. The 2026 team had 17 students.
Safety students, drawn from fire science, EMS and health sciences programs, run the medical tent, make hydration and heat rounds, practice first aid and write the camp’s daily safety message.
Communications students, about 20 in 2026, document the week, publish updates for families and staff the camp’s public information function.
Around that work, partner agencies and industry teach short sessions: household emergency preparedness, CPR, fire science, incident command, stress management, employability skills and career conversations. Classroom time is deliberately short. The work is the curriculum.
Run like a real incident. The camp runs on the Incident Command System (ICS), the structure that fire, emergency management and military agencies use to run real incidents. In 2026, Col. Mike Moffit of the Oregon National Guard was incident commander and Taylor ran operations. Each builder village operated as a division under its lead teacher, and the culinary village under its chef. Levi Hopkins, a wildfire prevention and policy manager at the Department of Forestry, was planning chief. Eric Wright of Lane ESD was liaison officer. Some students sat in on planning meetings and helped write the next day’s plan, and students ran the end-of-day briefings for the whole camp.
Who runs it. Taylor is the camp’s director, but the camp belongs to a coalition. The article “Who’s behind Ready2Respond” lists the partners, the people who led each part of the week and the command roles they filled.
What students get. Students attend free, with meals and lodging provided. The education sponsor hires educators and counselors for the week and pays each a stipend. Students leave with a week of work experience, a household preparedness plan and go-bag, the chance to earn micro-credentials in employability skills and stress management, and a network of adults in the fields they are curious about.