Developing an emergency plan is now standard for American classrooms - from extreme weather to lockdown situations, protocols are in place. However, a group of seniors at Reed High School in Sparks decided to take things a little further by creating emergency buckets.
“Duct tapes, a tarp, zip ties, water, granola bars…” students Daniel Perryman and Tobi Royle are part of the group that helped pack more than 100 emergency buckets for the school.
The idea was to fill the buckets with things students and teachers might need if they are unable to leave a classroom. "About a year and a half ago we had a series of code reds and blackouts, where we were in the rooms and afterward we talked about the experience and we realized we didn't have emergency supplies,” explains teacher Kelly Coleman.
The group of seniors from the Enterprise Project at Reed HS worked on the emergency buckets most of the year. "We kinda brainstormed all together as a team, we came up with - well, if someone needed to go to the bathroom, how we gonna do that. People get hungry so we need food, water," said 12th grader Jessica Sellers.
The group even wrote a grant proposal and secured funding.
"Skills USA, Lowe's community service grant gave us $14,736 for the project," says Coleman.
The Reno Lowe’s store even worked with the students and gave discounts to help stretch the budget.
The Comprehensive Life Skills – or CLS - students packed and distributed 136 buckets- one for every classroom and office at Reed High.
They buckets should last three years before anything needs replacing... the lesson learned - maybe a lifetime. "Hopefully,” says Coleman, “This will inspire people who see the buckets to do the same at home."
(For a few links on how to prepare a bucket yourself, please see below)
