By Betty Kaldas
Before every safety drill, your teacher reminds you of important things to remember and take when going outside. Some of those things may be the pole that displays your classroom number, the black emergency backpacks donning yellow stripes and a bright blue Lowe’s bucket. Teachers have explained the reason for this amenity, but what exactly inspired the placement of these blue buckets?
During his junior year, senior Atharva Rao was assigned with the task of starting and funding a community project in order to receive his Eagle Scout award. Having been a Boy Scout for seven years, he had been looking forward to reaching the top rank in the acclaimed program. In order to become an Eagle Scout, however, a Boy Scout must complete an Eagle Scout project that aids his community in a specific area of need.
“An Eagle Scout project is when you take up a leadership initiative to help fix some sort of problem in your community,” Rao said.
The idea of emergency buckets first came to Rao while having a conversation with Assistant Principal of Supervision Hayato Yukki. Yukki told him that the current buckets that were in place in each classroom were old and rusty, with any provisions contained inside long past their expiration date. Rao took note of the issue and began planning to replace and renew buckets.
“I wanted my Eagle project to be first-aid based, and Mr. Yukki told me that they wanted to redo their emergency lockdown buckets. I thought it’d be a good idea for me to make my Eagle project based on what the school needs,” Rao said.
With a solid idea and plan, Rao began to take the necessary steps to get his project cleared to begin. He received approval from the district and administration as well as his troop leaders through several meetings with them to explain the project. Once everything was ready, Rao’s next step was to effectively raise the necessary funds in order to afford the project.
“I started a GoFundMe, which was how I got most of my money, and my troop was able to post [the information] on all their social media platforms,” Rao said. “The rest of the money I got through donations from friends and family.”
In the end, Rao raised a grand total of $2000, when his original goal was around $1500. Using the money, he went to a variety of stores and bought materials in bulk. From first-aid kits to emergency food supplies, Rao bought everything the lockdown buckets needed after doing an inventory of each classroom’s bucket.
“After the inventory of those items, we brought [the buckets] up to campus. We replaced all the bad [buckets] with updated supplies, and we’d go on about every week or two for about four hours each session, working with the janitors to replace everything,” Rao said.
Rao didn’t work through all this alone, however. Although he completely planned and approved the plan by himself, he led a team of volunteers that worked on the project with him. From September to June of last year, Rao along with fellow members from his troop as well as some of his teammates on the badminton team volunteered their time and effort in support of Rao’s pursuit of the Eagle Scout Award.
So the next time you hear that blaring alarm and reach for that white handle, remind yourself of the time and effort put into those blue buckets and what they could do for you during an emergency lockdown.
