NANA’S 2^nd ANNUAL FALL FESTIVAL

MUD VOLLEYBALL TEAMS NEEDED

• Eddy County Sheriff’s Posse Arena 1600 E Greene St.
• OCTOBER 15, 2011
• 10:00AM – 3:00PM
• Teams must have a minimum of four (4) players
• $10 per player
• Team members must sign a waiver of release
• Team members must wear shoes – recommend they be duct taped on
• Protective eye goggles recommended

Trophy awarded to team with most wins and to team with most unique name

Registration deadline is October 10^th

For more information contact

Judith Lee Nelson at

Kjnelson529@windstream.net or 575- 628-3543

Or

Vicki Jones at 575-361-2176 or 575-885-2366



Nana’s Fire and Safety School was born of a heart wrenching event that robbed Nana of 12 family members.  The family had gathered camping south of Carlsbad, NM.  On August 19, 2000, they became the victims of a pipeline explosion. 

Nana’s Fire and Safety School is a program designed to help avoid such tragedies from happening in the future.  Nana’s will offer a place to teach children, k-5^th grade, about the kinds of accidents that hurt children everyday.  The school will focus on issues like fire prevention, bicycle safety , pedestrian awareness, vehicle and  internet hazards, as well as electrical and gas safety.

The purpose of Nana’s Fire and Safety School Fall Festival is to raise money to go towards the infrastructure of Nana’s Fire and Safety School.  A tiny educational village, sized for little learners, is being built at the heart of Permian Basin Regional Training Center, 1400 Commerce Drive, Carlsbad, NM.  Its streets and buildings, set at students level, are sponsored by donations of area businesses and organizations. 

The 2^nd annual fall festival will be held on October 15, 2011, at Eddy County Sheriff’s Posse Arena, 1600 E. Greene, Carlsbad, NM, 10:00am – 3:00pm.  Our goal is $30,000.  Your sponsorship of the games will help us reach our goal!  

Help make a difference.  Please contact Martha Chapman or Vicki Jones at (575)885-2366.   Visit our website at nanastown.com or Nana’s Fire and Safety School on facebook.



The purpose of the Fall Festival is to raise money so that we can get Nana’s Fire and Safety School up and running.  The money raised will go toward infrastructure needed to begin the project. ie, electrical, fencing.



The 30th annual Fire Prevention Parade will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, with lineup at St. Edward School, 805 Walter St., and ending at the beach. The theme is "Smoke Alarms: A Sound You Can Live With." Trophies will be presented to School, Civic and Band entries. Info: 885-3125, ext. 253.

 03/13/2009

By Tom Schneider
 Current-Argus Staff Writer

Carlsbad Fire Department personnel conducted a demonstration burn Friday at the Permian Basin Regional Training Center. The demonstration took place during a visit from Roswell Job Corps students to illustrate career opportunities in the protective services such as fire, police and emergency response. Tom Schneider/Current-Argus

CARLSBAD — Students from the Roswell Job Corps program had a chance Friday to witness first hand the training opportunities available at the Permian Basin Regional Training Center and an opportunity to give some thought to possibly pursuing a career in the emergency services.

"We're really excited about the possibilities of teaming up with the training center here," said Barron Broomfield, Job Corps protective services instructor. "Right now our emphasis is on law enforcement, security, military and corrections, but I've always thought that firefighting and emergency medical technician should be part of our program."

Job Corps is a U.S. Department of Labor program that provides career and technical training and education for at-risk youth aged 16 to 24.

The hope is to provide training programs available at the center that would attract Job Corps students from around the country.

Personnel from law enforcement and emergency services agencies were on hand to talk to the students and give them an overview of the opportunities available in protective and emergency services. Following the presentations, the Carlsbad Fire Department conducted a demonstration burn on the grounds of the center to illustrate some of the different kinds of training available.

"We're actually in the beginning stages of trying to offer classes in which young people of this age and experience level could participate," said Martha Chapman, a founder of the center.

"We as a society need to train our young people in jobs that are viable for the future," she said. "We are always going to have a need for emergency personnel.

"If we can reach these young people now and give them the opportunity to not only be proud of themselves but to be able to make others proud of them, then we'll have done our job," she said.

 Carlsbad Current Argus

February 16, 2009

By Martha Mauritson
Current-Argus Managing Editor

The board of directors of Nana's Fire and Safety School manned the shovels at a ground breaking Sunday for the newest addition to the regional fire training center. Like the Permian Basin Regional Training Center, Nana's safety school was conceived by Martha Chapman — fifth from left. "Nana" to her own grandchildren, Chapman was the driving force behind the training center, using funds she received in a civil settlement after a pipeline explosion killed 12 of her extended family members.

 February 15, 2009

By Stella Davis
Current-Argus Staff Writer

Carlsbad Current Argus

CARLSBAD — Martha Chapman knows tragedy first hand. She also knows how to make something good happen out of her personal loss.

She achieved her first goal to establish a regional fire training center in Carlsbad that has become a regional hub for training firefighter and industry personnel involved in safety.

Now, she is moving on to her second goal and one dear to her heart the construction of Nana's Fire and Safety School on the campus of the Permian Basin Regional Training Center, next to the city industrial park.

A ground breaking ceremony will be held today at 3 p.m. for the main building, which will be followed by a series of 20 more buildings replicating local store fronts, city streets and homes. The street work has been completed.

It was early morning on Aug. 19, 2000, when an extended family of 12 was killed in a pipeline explosion south of Carlsbad. They had camped by the Delaware River with a bridge overhead. The spot was a favorite family campsite and they spent time there often. Unbeknownst to the adult family members, when they went to sleep that night, they were sleeping near a time bomb.

In just a few hours they would be awakened by a horrific explosion that would take their lives and those of their children, including 6-month old twins and a 4-year-old.

Lawsuits against the pipeline company ensued. Chapman, a personal representative for her family members who perished in the explosion, was awarded several million dollars for the loss of her family. In the court settlement she also was able to secure $10 million to build the training center. The Carlsbad Community Foundation was designated as the fiscal agent for the funds. Working with the foundation, Chapman began the arduous steps toward making the facility a successful reality.

With the fire training facility in operation, Chapman wanted to do more. She wanted to do something geared to children and teaching them about safety. She wanted to protect children from the dangers her family experienced.

But how that could be done was a question unanswered until she learned about a children's safety town in Frisco, Texas. Chapman wasted no time in heading there.

In Frisco, she found a mock community with clean streets, child-size electric cars, homes and stores,

crossing guards and cross walks, and a fire station, all geared toward teaching children all aspects of personal safety.

She also found that businesses sponsored the buildings that bore their store front logos in the business district of the village. She believed that Carlsbad businesses would do the same if she presented them with the plan she had in mind.

Returning to Carlsbad, Chapman set her plans in motion to build a similar kid-oriented town at the training center, at an estimated cost of about $1.5 million. She also began speaking at local organizations to explain her project and to get business sponsorships.

"It's going to be a safety training school for children in pre-school through fifth grade," Chapman said." We're going to teach kids about street, railroad crossing, weather, Internet and personal safety. We will also teach them about the importance of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. We will have stores, a mall, electric cars for the kids to drive and much more. In all, there will be about 21 buildings, which will be built to five-eighths scale."

She explained that the plan is for local businesses to pay for constructing the building that replicates their store; and in turn, they will lease it to the training center. Thus far, she has commitments from five businesses.

She said the kids' facility is not unique. In addition to the top-notch facility she visited in Texas, Chapman said there is another one in Pennsylvania.

"There could be more, but I only know about those two," Chapman said.

She said she strongly believes Nana's fire and Safety School will benefit children in Carlsbad and may even save a life or two sometime in the future.

"When I was working on the plans with the architect for Nana's Fire and Safety School, he told me a story about a 7-year-old girl in Pennsylvania who went through the school. She had done the smoke detector and fire safety course," Chapman said. "When she went home, she badgered her parents to buy smoke detectors and install them in their home. She badgered them enough so they went and bought them. About two weeks later, the smoke alarms went off in the middle of the night. The family's home was in flames.

"They had an escape plan in place that the little girl insisted they have. Apparently her dad had something in the house that he felt was important enough to want to go back into the burning house. The little girl held onto him and wouldn't let him go into the burning house. She later told the media that she learned about fire safety and smoke detectors at the fire and safety school. That's what I hope will happen here kids learning about safety. My mission statement is: 'Teaching children to save lives, one child at a time.' I want Nana's to be a place where kids can learn and have a lot of fun."

Chapman said no child will be charged to come to the school. She envisions summer camps and tourists bringing their children to the children's safety training school as part of their holiday in Carlsbad experience.

"People come here and take their kids to the Carlsbad Caverns, the beach and the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park. Nana's Fire and Safety School would be an ideal place for them to bring their children for a day of fun and a great learning experience about safety,' Chapman added.

Vickie Jones, Chapman's personal assistant, said when Chapman offered her the job, she thought it would be slow-paced. But she was wrong, Jones noted with a laugh.

"It's been anything but slow or boring," Jones said. "Martha is an amazing person. I describe her as a person that is passionately purpose driven. She sets her goals and makes them a reality. Nana's is very dear to her heart, and she has worked very hard to make it a reality."

What: Ground breaking ceremony for Nana's Fire and Safety School.

When: 3 p.m. today.

Where: Permian Basin Regional Training Center, 1400 Commerce St., off National Parks Highway.

  Squidoo

Martha Chapman, better known as Nana, is an amazing woman. On August 19, 2000 she lost 12 members of her family in a pipeline explosion south of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Five of them were her grandchildren ages, 5 , 3, 2, and 6 month old twins.

First she fostered a $10 million endowment for a training center in order that emergency responders of all kinds could gain the knowledge, skills and hands-on practice needed to face such a situation.

Hence the creation of Permian Basin Regional Training Center in Carlsbad, NM. Enter Mark Maciha; named Executive Director of the new center. The two have become a very effective team and are now working on their next dream.

It's a dream of building Nana's Fire and Safety School Blog. A child size village for the sole purpose of educating children and their parents about safety in all of life's not-so-safe situations.

Together they are working hard to keep just one more family from being impacted in the way Martha and the Carlsbad community were on that day.