In a year that feels about as apocalyptic as the 21st century can get, any ameliorative for our anxieties comes high on a gift list this holiday season. Since aromatherapy and scented candles can’t guarantee your peace of mind through the remainder of 2020, the next best bet may be investing in emergency preparedness, survival, and a whole package of protection. And so there’s JUDY, the survivalist-themed kits of everything and anything you might need when the world (literally) goes up in flames.
Packed in either a smart, watertight backpack, a family-sized bin, a fanny-pack first aid kit, or small pouch, JUDY products are a beacon of awareness for the burgeoning mainstream survivalism all around us. If we can’t afford a bunker in the woods, or even if we can but aren’t ready to commit, the JUDY line can create a baseline of readiness. Each kit comes with a well-organized assortment of every essential you need and probably don’t have: safety whistle, emergency blanket, supply of water and nonperishable food, tools for making do, ponchos and heat packs for battling the elements, and first aid. It’s easy to imagine heading into the hills and living with just my JUDY, but what truly impressed me is that I’ve taken to using my supplies in times of real need.
My kit arrived right after I fled NYC for Oregon, leaving the epicenter of the pandemic and arriving in the worst season of wildfires America has ever seen. Heavy smoke rolled into my rural retreat where we were put on evacuation notice—and I was comforted to find N95 masks inside my JUDY, the only way to combat the intense air pollution created by the thickening smoke. This year has really brought the reality of certain dangers to the forefront: the invisible threat of COVID, the environmental catastrophes linked to ongoing and unrelenting climate change, long-needed social and political awareness that sadly brought about intense upheaval in our communities. In 2020, it’s not hard to understand our desire to find the right supplies for when life takes a turn for the worse.
