GRAY – The Gray Region Citizen Corps is invited residents to attend a free disaster training session from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, June 10, in Stimson Hall.

Residents living or working in the region from Yarmouth to Casco are encouraged to attend. The classroom training this month will focus on people can help if a Red Cross emergency shelter is opened in the community and they want to volunteer.

Those attending will receive free American Red Cross certification in shelter operations.

The corps has been organized to help during special times of townwide emergency. It also encourages residents to answer a skills survey in the lobby of the Gray Public Safety Building. It allows the information to be entered into a database so that during a regional disaster residents can be contacted to help their neighbors. Volunteer skills are needed for tasks from delivering groceries to taking care of pets.

The nonprofit corps provide monthly safety and emergency preparedness seminars on the second Friday of the month. Past topics have included ATV safety, home fire extinguisher practice, pet first aid and cooking without electricity.

Future seminars are planned for family preparedness and chainsaw safety. More information about the federal Citizen Corps program may be found at www.citizencorps.gov.

The local group publishes a periodic electronic newsletter. Messages may be left with Gray Public Safety at 657-3931.