This blog post is a personal perspective on the “Go Buckets” Project and how community involvement can make an impactful difference in local school safety.
It is always exciting to harness the power of community to tackle school safety issues. At Status Solutions we’ve been at the forefront of creating bridges between local business, volunteer organizations, churches, senior living facilities, and schools in effort to ensure that all children have safe and rich learning environments. With the “Go Buckets” project we experienced firsthand the resounding success that comes from having a community meet the needs of local schools.
The project first started when the Westerville Police Department asked for help from the School Solutions Network, a Status Solutions initiative designed to bring schools and community together. The police department wanted to put a “go bucket” filled with emergency preparedness supplies in each classroom in the Westerville school district. That is 700 classrooms! The idea was originally suggested by a student from Westerville North High School.
The thought was that if the schools were to experience a lock down and the students were to be in one location for a sustained period of time, then they would need access to supplies. The supplies in each “go bucket” include but are not limited to bottles of water, granola bars, flashlights and batteries.
This was a worthwhile project, but it also required substantial financial support from the Westerville Community. After totaling up all the different supplies and items that we needed to fill all the buckets, the price came out to over $30,000!
We knew the Westerville Community is a community that cares for their schools, and while we knew the price tag was high, we had faith the community would come through and deliver. We were not disappointed.
Lowe’s was very generous and donated the amount of buckets we needed for the project, Roush hardware and Westerville Ace Hardware helped with some of the supplies, and then with the help of Status Solutions, Mount Carmel, Uptown Eyecare, Zink Food Services, Faith Covenant Church, Leap of Faith Dance Studio, and many others, we fund raised the amount needed to complete the project!
After receiving the financial backing from the community, we next had to plan out the logistics of purchasing enough supplies to fill 700 buckets. The School Solutions Network team spent a day running to stores and buying all the supplies.
Friday, Oct. 20, was assembly day. We had over 40 volunteers from the Westerville Police Department, Ohio Health, and the schools to help put together these buckets.
It was an awesome experience seeing the whole community come together to work on this project. It demonstates that with community pride, no goal is too large to accomplish. The schools are now more prepared for a lockdown situation and it is all thanks to the Westerville community and the people that make it a tremendous place to live.
Click here to read the news release about the “Go Buckets” project.
