The first annual Star Valley Preparedness Fair is set to to happen Friday at 6 PM and Saturday from 9 AM to 5 PM at the Afton Fairgrounds Exhibit Building.

One host of the event, Rob Erickson, says it all came together from a group of concerned citizens.

“We wanted to, using COVID as a backdrop, find out how to prepare ourselves and our community a little bit better,” Erickson said. “In every facet.”

The first night will be devoted more to a political discussion. Senator Dan Dockstader will be in attendance along with Lincoln County GOP chair Marti Halverson. She will be discussing the Constitution and civil liberties. Saturday will be more about emergency preparedness.

“Everything from food, water, light all the way down to financial and estate planning,” Erickson said. “We Wyoming-ites are known for our independence streak and we just want to promote that as much as possible.”

Dr. Kal Sellers is the other host and he says there will be many booths set up that people can visit and every block, except for lunch, will have speakers. There will be discussions on healthy food storage options. This includes learning ways to not waste food and make it a part of your lifestyle.

“I’ll be talking about herbal and home remedies,” Sellers said. “Things that you can do and probably should have around to handle a variety of emergencies in the event that you either can’t or don’t want to go use options that we traditionally use.”

There will also be speakers on communications aspects and using ham radios. There will also be representatives from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s department to discuss gun safety and things like home defense situations.

There will also be discussions centered around first response to a big catastrophe like an earthquake. Sellers says the day will be filled with all sorts of topics.

“We live in a time where we can see some volatility coming that none of us have lived to see before,” Sellers said. “What do we do about it? What do we do about it responsibly? How can we make our lives more stable in a reasonable and practical way?

“If worse to comes to worse, how can we better prepared as a community? Because me watching my neighbor starve because they haven’t prepared is not acceptable to me. It’s only going to be acceptable if everybody has a chance to make it through this well and shining.”

Erickson says there will be vendors and other organizations as well so you can make purchases.

“So, you should be able to leave there with a bag full of emergency preparedness goodies,” Erickson said. “As well as information to get the ball rolling.”

He also says even if you are a preparedness pro there will be something you can get out of this event. Sellers says you can go its Facebook page to get an agenda, but definitely recommends coming all day to learn as much as you can. Erickson says there will also be a map to show where all of the vendors will be at.