MANATEE -- The southwestern regional American Red Cross announced Friday plans to host the ninth annual Disaster Camp for Teens starting this Monday.

The camps will be held at the Lakewood Ranch office, 10311 Malachite Drive, July 16-20 and at the Bradenton office at 2905 59th St. W., July 23-27.

The camps are for anyone between 14 and 18 years of age. Each session will run 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Camps will focus on educating and training teens for disaster situations such as flooding, distribution of emergency supplies and food, wilderness survival situations, and hurricanes.

Mock tornado drills will be conducted with East Manatee Fire Rescue in which teens will play victims inside of "heavily damaged buildings," and will be rescued

by first responders.

These drills are scheduled to run 9:30-11:30 a.m. July 17 and 23.

After completing camps, attendees will be eligible to join the American Red Cross Youth Response Team, a group of teen volunteers that train and assist year 'round.

"Our Youth Response teams are certified to help in shelters, distribution of supplies, and just about everything else adult participants can do outside of driving the response vehicles," Manatee County Youth Coordinator Debby Tapp said.

Week-long sessions cost $75 each, and include meals and field trips. Pre-attendance registration is required, and sessions are limited to 20 participants each.

For more information on activities and how to get involved, contact tappd@manateeredcross.org or call 941-792-8686.

Kurt Spurlock, newsroom intern at the Herald, can be reached at 941-745-7080, ext. 2630. Follow him on Twitter @KurtSpurlock.