Door County Veterans and The Egg Harbor Business Association Launch Operation Bucket Brigade During Pumpkin Patch 2006!

Below are the ICS daily logs and work papers for an operation I ran during a major festival in a tourist community. Refer to the briefings, white papers, tutorials, and case studies based on this exercise. 

                           Rich Woldt

Mission Accomplished!        OVER & OUT

10-17-06 1200 Hours: Mission accomplished. Operation Pumpkin Patch - Bucket Brigade is over. $1,718.32 has been turned over to the Egg Harbor Business Association. Post commanders will hold an operation evaluation and debriefing session at their next post meeting.

Incident Commander          Thomas Kowalski - Commander American Legion Post 527    Sister Bay, Wisconsin

OVER & OUT!

Tuesday 10-10-06: Our Operations Chief reports... demobilization changes were exicuted. Buckets in Egg Harbor will remain deployed until after Fall Festival. The mock-up with all support supplies were officially turned over to the commander of the bucket brigade planned for Fall Festival.

Our Finance Chief Reports... $1,348.36 was jointly counted and verified by the treasure of the EHBA and deposited at the Bay Lake Bank. After final collections have been verified and deposited, the EHBA will draft a check to the memorial fund.

We suffered only minor damage to the mock-up and buckets. One attempted theif was reported. Total casualty losses duirng this operations was $23.16. Veterans are reminded to submit all expense reports to the Finance Chief before October 16, 2006.

Our Logistics Chief Reports... The mock-up has been moved from the Egg Harbor Staging area to the Sister Bay Staging area. The command post for Operation Fall Festival will be at the AL Post 527 stand located near the Sister Bay Library. Fire Chief Chris Hetch will brief the IC on emergency rescue assets deployed for Fall Festival. FYI, the command post for Fall Festival - Operation Concealed Carry will be located at the VFW Post 8337 brat stand located next to Al Johnsons.

Our Planning Chief Reports... Demobilization plans have been submitted to the IC and exicuted by Chief of Operations. This brings closure to planning for this operations. Plans for the bucket brigade in Sister Bay have been written for a one week deployment.   

Sunday 10-8-06 1400 Hours: Demobilization order given to Planning Chief:

Pumpkin Patch 2006 is winding down so it's time to close up the ice cream tent and demobilize the bucket brigade. Orders went out to Command Staff to exicute a demobilization plan. Our next bucket brigade mission will be Operation Fall Festival in Sister Bay between Thursday October 12 and Sunday Octorber 15, 2006. 

Deployment Ordered 10-6-06 High Noon until 10-6-06 1600 hours: Operation Pumpkin Patch is up and running. All veterans who plan to be in Egg Harbor over the weekend should read the "Deployment Instruction" posted in green by our Operations Chief!

Report 10-6-06 0600 Door County veterans stand mission ready and ready to roll. AL Post 527 will be stationed at our stand located next to the BP gas station. Operation Chiefs VFW Post 8337 - Woldt on Friday, AMVET Post 51 Mac Donald and Wendt on Saturday, and Woldt on Sunday have designated and equipped staging areas for both Operation Bucket Brigade and Operation Code Red.

All veterans in Egg Harbor over the weekend are reminded to log in at either the AL ice cream stand or EHBA beer tent. All vets are also asked to pitch in an help serve the public at our AL stand or any of the EHBA stands in Harber View Park.

Now please ready reports from the Chief of Operations and have a great weekend.

Report 9-15-06... Our mission is to partner with the Egg Harbor Business Association during Pumpkin Patch, collect donations for the Veterans Memorial, and stand ready to respond should a crisis arrise during this festival. We formed a bucket brigade and deployed six companies to  strategically locate buckets throughout Egg Harbor.

Veterans who plan to be in Egg Harbor during the weekend are asked to "pitch-in" and help EHBA members serve beer and brats in Harbor View Park. To pitch-in you can either click here and register or sign in at our AL ice cream stand located near the BP gas station. The Egg Harbor Business Association needs our support so if you have a few hours to serve beer, corn on the cob, or brats, log in. EHBA coordinator Mark Sawyer will be cooking brats and assigning personnel.  

In addition to the bucket brigade, Door County veterans have established a "Veteran - Incident Command and Control Response Plan" that will be deployed if needed. Our plans included response protocols for a medical emergencies, weather alerts,  missing childern and amber alerts, fires, bomb threats, toxic waste spills, or a request from authorities to assist during a mass evacuation.

Considering the on-going threats from terrorists, natural disasters, and pandemics, we're asking all veterans planning to be in Egg Harbor over the weekend to log-in in case your needed. We're asking all Door County veterans to complete the surveys at... www.DoorCountyVeterans.com.

You're survey information will help us prepare for and defend against the next terrorist attack, tornado, wildfire or call to evacuate.

To all veterans coming to Pumpkin Patch! Please sign in at either the EHBA beer tent or at the AL Post 527 ice cream stand. Give us your name, Post #, branch of service, and if your carrying one, your cell phone number. This contact information will be needed if we activate a "unified command" during the weekend.

The log-in books at both the EHBA and AL Post 527 stands are RED!  Login using your full name, Post number, branch of service, and cell phone number

Bobby Mueller Egg Harbor fire fighter and 1st responder (920-421-1554) and employees at both the Orchard Golf Course and Horseshoe Bay Golf Course will be monitoring weather condictions in Door County. Click on to monitor developing conditions yourself.

The 640 Back up EMT group will be stationed next to the BP gas station with defibulators, oxygen, and other first aid supplies.

Log of Personnel Post 527:

10-17-06 1800 Hours: Operations has collected all but six buckets left at business that will be closed until next weekend. Erica at the EHBA information booth will notify all members to turn their buckets over to her for a final verification and deposit. Based on the location of these buckets I doubt more than $50 remains uncollected.

Operations will follow-up with the EHBA and turn all Bucket Brigade assets over to the Veterans Memorial Committee.

Operations Chief -               Rich Woldt VFW Post 8337

OVER & OUT!

10-15-06 1600 Hours: All but six buckets have been picked up. A verification of bills collected indicate collections from over 40 buckets will be less than $300. Four locations refused to put the buckets out, seven placed the buckets where they could not be reached, two buckets were either lost or stolen, eight were found empty due to a variety of reasons such as: "We were too busy, we didn't understand the project, we put the buckets away at night and forgot to get them out in the morning, and we already donated to the memorial."

Recommendations for future bucket brigades include:

• Plan at least two months prior to the event.
• Provide business owners with written instructions to include where to place the bucket and how to handle currency during non-business hours.
• Once the bucket is in place, conduct a call-back to confirm how the bucket should be handled.
• Expanding the operation to include at least one business in Fish Creek was a good idea. This provided an early warning partner for Operation Concealed Carry and one of our best collection locations. Other than the main bucket on our mock-up, Lautenbachs' Winery in Fish Creek collected the most, to include the buckets deployed for Operation General Desire. Thank you Bob Lautenbach!

10-9-06 0600 Hours: Demobilization plans have been implemented as follows:

10-8-06 16:00:  Collections from mock-up bucket, and buckets OPP #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6 have been counted, verified, and turned over to the Finance Chief in sealed envelopes signed and dated by veterans verifying final collections. Veterans are reminded to review their collection control procedures and currency transportation guidelines prior to making collections of buckets deployed by companies A, B, C, D, E, and F.

10-8-06 14:00 Hours: Demobilization orders have been received from the Planning Chief:  Our original demobilization plan was to pick up all buckets, cash them out under duel control and turn all collections over by receipt to the EHBA President at Orchard Golf Course.

However, the Demobilization Plan now requests buckets at bars and restaurants were collections exceeded $50 be left deployed through Monday October 15, 2006. The hope is to take advantage of tourists going through Egg Harbor to Sister Bay's Fall Festival.

Therefore, most Pumpkin Patch buckets will be picked up on Monday October 9 with the balance being picked up on Monday October 15, 2006. 

Sunday 10-7-06:

13:40: Hours: Met with EMTs for operational update. New personnel refused to be identified. Appears they were not properly briefed by their chain of command.

Also met with Sheriff patrols to request assistance in monitoring large exposure of currency at mock-up. They informed me they would be going off duty in 20 minutes at 0300 hours. I arranged for vets at ice cream stand to deploy at least one vet to guard the mock-up bucket. Alerted EMTs across the street at BP gas station to keep an eye on mock-up and report any concerns to IC at the AL ice cream stand. Veterans will monitor mock-up collections bucket from 0300 to demobilization and than assemble at staging area to stand guard while collections are counted and verified.  

12:38 Hours:

Report of suspicious person seen at bucket at bucket OPP#4. Incident report with pictures will be filed.

1200 Hours:

0900 Hours: With the exception of bucket OPP#1 at the AL stand, Operations General Desire failed to deploy on Saturday. Buckets OPP#2, #3, #4, #5 and #6 were deployed to Harbor View Park.

Gibraltar Student Loni Kita and I placed bait money in each bucket and gave initialed documentation Chief of Finance. Veterans and EHBA members were briefed on handling evidence to preserve forensic evidence and chain-of-custody.

Sunday 10-7-06, 0600 Hours

Accepted transfer of Operations from comrade Wendt and Mac Donald. Took custody of collections properly verified and sealed in envelopes.

Deployed Operations General Desire, hat IDs, and cameras #1 and #2. 

Saturday 10-7-06, 0700 Hours:

I met with Kenny Wendt at 0700 hours and transferred Operations to him and Terry Mac Donald for Saturday 0700 hours to Sunday 0600 hours. They took control of Operation Bucket Brigade to include deployment of Operation General Desire.

Deployment Instructions 10-6-10 High Noon!

It's simple!

1. All vet's planning to be in Egg Harbor over Pumpkin Patch should log in either at the American Legions Ice Cream Stand - code words "I want ice cream!" or at the EHBA beer stand, code words "I want to help!"
2. Read everything below in green and hope we don't go code RED!
3. If we do go code RED, click on the "CODE RED icons for your reporting instructions
4. Veterans logged into Operation Desire should read the staging area information and deployments security protocols below.
5. If an emergency occurs call 9-11 and than 608-712-7880 ASAP

Report 10-6-06 All buckets have been deployed. Click on our Bucket Log' links below to download a record of EHBA partners deploying buckets. Buckets collections will be made on Monday and Tuesday 10/9 and 10/10/06.

Sheriff Vogel, emergency government's Demeuse, and Fire Chief Mark Bogenschutz have been briefed.

The memorial mock-up and thermometer have been delivered to our staging area (Christine's garage) and veterans Mac Donald, Wendt, and Woldt will handle rolling it out and back each day.

(Note: there is very little clearance so move it in and out of the garage slowly. The ball & eagle have to be taken off each night or it's too tall to fit through the door. When putting the flags up, the American flag always flies highest in the center with Wisconsin flag on the right and vets flag on the left. The posts are labeled. You have to push down on the Wisconsin flag so it's lower than the American flag. Locate the memorial close to the white picket fence with the stone table next to the yellow guide wire for the telephone pole. Wrap the wire for the collection bucket around the guide wire. Place the collection cards on the table held down so they don't blow away. Place the thermometer next to the memorial. 

Report 9-30-06...  The bucket brigade deployed six companies to cover the Egg Harbor Business Community from the Landmark Road on the South to County EE north, County A East and the waters of Green Bay to the West. Buckets were color coded according to the type of business and business location. Each bucket was assigned to an on-site business contact who was briefed on our standard internal, audit, and collection control procedures. Passwords were established for subsequent contact in-person or over the phone.

Members of the EHBA Board of Directors were briefed on our Door County Veteran's Incident Command and Control plans for emergencies during a festival or large public gathering. If an emergency occurs during Pumpkin Patch weekend, we will assemble outside of the information booth located next to the post office. Erica is our primary contact at 920-868-3717. If the incident escalates to a "unified command" an emergency operation center (EOC) will be set up at the Orchard Golf Course (code OGC). (Click here for directions to the OGC).

Robert Mueller (Member of the Egg Harbor Fire Department) is our designated weather spotter. He will set up inside the BP gas station and will be logged into his weather monitoring web site. Egg Harbor Fire Chief Mark Bogenchutz will brief our IC on: evacuation routes, the location of first aid and medical emergency equipment within the village, and any special instructions for veterans during a village wide incident such as a missing person, tornado, toxic waste spill, or need for a mass evacuation.

Planning Chief - R. Ohnesorge  American Legion Post 527 Roger is also Commander - VFW Post 9290 Fish Creek WI

• We should start planning at least two month before Pumpkin Patch so our partners in the business community have time to fully understand our goals and objectives.
• We should provide all involved with written instructions and protocols. 

Planning Chief -                 Roger Ohnesorge              OVER & OUT

10-8-06 1600: Recommended changes to our demobilization plans...  Discussion with EHBA members and considering Fall Festival is going to bring many tourist to and through Egg Harbor, buckets are already deployed to EHBA members, it's economically feasible to leave them in place until after Fall Festival. I recommend we:

1. Leave most if not all buckets deployed until Monday, October 15.
2. Request Erica to email EHBA members and advise them of our change in plans.
3. Include in Erica's email a report from our Chief of Finance. 

Sunday October 8, 2006 1400 Hours: Demobilization orders have been received!  Report fronm the Finance Chief indicate the main bucket on the mock-up of the memorial has taken in more than expected. Buckets for Operation Desire failed to deploy on Saturday but when deployed Sunday took in close to $100 in their first 3 hours. A quick check of buckets in stores indicate they are not doing well yet those in bars and restaurants appear to be doing better.

Although the weather predicted for Fall Festival is not good and we have deployed buckets in Sister Bay earlier this summer, based on the success of the main memorial bucket (large water jug) I recommend we at least try to locate the mock up in Sister Bay. I recommend we designate an Incident Commander for Fall Festival and transfer both the mock up and at least the six buckets used in Operation Desire to whoever takes command. The three most important deployment needs for Fall Festival are:

1. Officially transfer the mock-up, thermometer, six Desire buckets to the Fall Festival Incident Commander.
2. Logistic should locate an appropriate garage for the mock up for Thursday through Sunday night.
3. The IC should make appropriate contacts with village and festival authorities. The ideal location for the mock-up would be near either the AL post 527 stands or VFW Post 8337's stand near Al Johnsons. If the mock-up is located in the park, veterans in their post jacket and hat should be posted at the memorial.  Due to the amount, the money collected should be monitored very closely.
4. Buckets should be deployed using the same internal, audit, and collection controls used during Pumpkin Patch. 

10-1-06, 2006  Report to IC: We are one week from Egg Harbor's Pumpkin Patch! We would like to think Door County is immune to terrorist attacks, natural disasters, pandemics, and scam artists. Unfortunately, we are not. This summer alone we've experienced the Ellison Bay gas explosions, and it wasn't too many years ago that the tornado touched down south of Egg Harbor.

Door County veterans will be on-guard during Pumpkin Patch in Egg Harbor and Fall Festival in Sister Bay. If you're a veteran and plan to be at either of these festivals, I encourage you to log in either at our command posts or through our log-in icons at www.DoorCountyVeterans.com

If a major incident occurs during any festival in Door County, click on the icons for incident updates and reporting instructions.

Thank you for your on-going willingness to protect and serve.

Note: We place bait money in buckets so if the thief is caught we can ID at least one bill in the bucket. Before deploying a bucket, record the denomination, bank of issue, serial number, and series year. Know also that if the thief deposits the stolen bill, that pollutes all transactions in the account so the DA can consider all funds in the account as part of the dishonest act.

Six companies deployed buckets:

Operations continued...

Logistics Chief - D. Weagand AmVet Post 51

Logistics Chief -         Dale Weagand              OVER & OUT

10-16-06 1200 Hours: Operations reported all but 6 buckets have been picked up, contents were counted and verified and turned over to the EHBA treasure. Remaining buckets dropped off at the EHBA information booth. The Operations Chief will turn all buckets over to the memorial committee.

Logistics Chief -      Dale Weagand     OVER & OUT

10-9-06 1200 Hours: Operations reported collections from the main bucket at the mock-up plus those from Operation Desire have totaled $1,348.36 and have been dual verified by EHBA treasure and tellers at Bay Lake Bank. All internal, audit, and collections controls are being followed. The next wave of collections will be made on or after Monday, October 15, 2006.

Property damage during operation pumpkin patch was one lost bucket, one lost chain lock, and one ruined jacket. Total claimed to date: $3.47.

Note missing chain lock on bucket on right.

NTBTS... Photos of attempted theft submitted by EHBA member. Taken while selling corn.

NTBTS 9-11 called, photos posted and Sheriff Vogel briefed by Veteran Bob Schultz at 13:00 Hours 10-9-06. Case #427, Sgt. Bies. Posted on site with alerted to EHBA members and logged Vets at 13:02 Hours. Suspect seen at Christine's 08:35 not caught on camera. Again at 16:00 hours caught on camera.

NTBTS: Received report of stranger signing in at beer stand. Did not give password, last seen at 20:05 leaving town. Theft of cash suspected in that he was caught on camera placing money in his pocket. Film now missing.

10-8-06 1200 Hours:

It appears the mock-up, the six "Operation Desire" buckets and buckets for E Company will be deployed to Fall Festival. The Co-Op Gas station on 57 south of Sister Bay has been designated as the staging area for Operation Fall Festival. The mock-up and buckets will be stored there under the care, custody, and control of AL Post 527. 

Report... I represent Egg Harbor on the County Board so I know where we locals and tourists can find shelter during a storm and how to get out of Door if we're ever in harms way.

We located the AL ice cream stand at the center of the village on #42 to be visible to the public yet having an escape route to Church if needed. This location also allows for an ease shift to the EHBA information booth during a large scale crisis.

Bucket Brigade logistics established 6 deployment routes focused on reducing the distance and time traveled and the amount of currency transported by any one veteran.

David Neuville will deliver the memorial "mock-up" he built (click on the picture below for more pictures) to Egg Harbor on Friday. It will be stored at Christine's and moved to the lawn inside here picket fence by Terry MacDonald Saturday morning. Members of AL Post 527 will keep an eye on it and move it back into the garage if it rains.

Sunday 10-8-06: Received initialed list of bait money from Operations Chief as follows: