American Legion seeking donations for school safety buckets
The American Legion Darren Tate Post 425 in Canyon is seeking community support in raising funds for emergency buckets, to be provided to every classroom at Heritage Hills Elementary School of the Canyon Independent School District.
The idea for the security buckets came from Heritage Hills assistant principal Chris Young, who had been striving for some additional form of safety preparedness available in each classroom since the school's establishment two years ago. Young said the bucket is a safety measure in case of any disaster, including the upcoming tornado season, other natural disasters and human catastrophes.
After deciding to create a "Safety Bucket," Young then strategized in partnership with Chris Holt, Commander of The American Legion Darren Tate Post 425, and came up with a list of items that would be included in each bucket including a fire extinguisher, water, fruit snacks, trash bags, duct tape, pry bar, shower curtain, first aid material, wet naps, Nitrile disposable gloves, a lid cover that can also be utilized as a toilet seat for the bucket and much more.
"We wanted a wide variety of items, so the idea and purpose of these buckets is to give our teachers and our staff the resources they would need to feel confident in taking care of our kids in an emergency situation," Young said.
"We know that we have different items throughout the school, but to have an entire bucket of supplies, that would be helpful in each classroom. It brings a lot of confidence to each of our teachers and our parents and community, knowing that we are doing everything we can to make sure the students remain safe and keep their focus on education, not safety," Young added.
Holt said he approached Young quickly after the establishment of their post approximately one year ago, and they began seeking donations for the safety buckets.
The organizations hope to provide a bucket for every classroom in the elementary school, totaling to 50 buckets. So far, they have provided a total of 13 buckets, but they are seeking donations to purchase some of the remaining items needed, including 35 of the gallon bucket toilet seats.
"This is well worth a donation. We have a list of items that are still needed, and a lot of these items are not that expensive. It's just giving up one trip to Taco Villa," Young said. "For example, we currently need more lid covers that convert to toilet seats, which might be a funny thing to ask for but incredibly useful in providing these safety buckets, and they are only $7 at Academy. That is just one thing that we need to complete some of these buckets."
Young said that training will be provided to each teacher after receiving their bucket on how to utilize the items and store them, as well as how to explain the safety preparedness bucket to the students. Young said for safety reasons, the buckets will be stored in a private location in each classroom, away from the children's everyday reach but in a space that they know they have access to it.
"Ultimately we hope and pray that these buckets will never be touched again once we have them over to the teachers, but we also know that we cannot control everything that happens in the world," Young said.
According to the organizations, they have received much community support in supplying the needed items from local businesses, such as Ace Hardware in Canyon providing the 50 buckets, Northwestern Mutual, Walmart, United Supermarkets, Sam's Club, Harbor Freight Tools, Amarillo National Bank and more.
Holt says if possible he and his organization would like to broaden their efforts to provide a bucket for every classroom across the district, but he feels that goal will be short lived without community funding.
"Right now we are about $1,500 short. Once we get this complete, we hope to go to another school within the district and hopefully inspire other American Legion posts within the surrounding areas to help provide similar safety buckets for their school classrooms," Holt said.
"My goal is for at least every classroom in Canyon ISD to have these buckets, but if God is willing, to get some type of emergency bucket in every classroom in the nation, that would be great," Holt added. "We are seeing all these natural disasters right now, including tornadoes, fires, floodings happening, and these buckets can be utilized for any type of disaster."
Young stated that recently the discussion to expand the buckets to other schools within the district has been heard by district board members and is currently being considered.
To learn more about the emergency buckets or to make a donation, visit them online at https://www.darrentatepost425.net/, message them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DarrenTatePost425 or contact Chris Holt at 940-447-1726. Check donations can also be made out to the American Legion and delivered to P.O. Box 270, Canyon, TX 79015.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: American Legion of Canyon aims to give classes school safety buckets
