I first started Boy Scouts just before I became 14 years old, and I had no scouting experience prior to this. Becoming Eagle was a goal since the beginning and I had inspiration from my dad’s friends, who are also Eagles. Being 16, I have 2 more years and I’m going to make the best of it. Being Eagle is definitely a major milestone in my life.
Jonathan DeSimone – Eagle Project:
Like most schools, St. Robert Bellarmine Elementary School in Burbank has an emergency disaster plan. In February 2007, the plan is being inspected by a CA state agency. Part of the plan consists of a building called the earthquake bin. This building houses all of the water, food, shelter and medical supplies of the plan. This building has to be clean, organized, safe and made accessible. In event of an emergency, the supplies in this building should consist of enough for 300 students and people for 3 days. As of now this building is more a hazard than a potential life saving structure. The building has been used for storage for the past 5 years. It is cluttered from top to bottom with junk that has been accumulating and no one knows what to do with. There is no food that can be seen and the water has not been replaced in years. In fact, the current water has an expiration dated 1996. There is no inventory list of medical supplies. All the supplies need to be audited, inventoried, labeled, calculated and if needed, replaced.In addition, each of the classrooms should have a first aid emergency kit. Each kit has about a dozen survival essentials. these kits need to be audited, inventoried, labeled and if needed, purchased and or replaced.
Collectively with planning, preparation, and execution we worked 130+ hours. I delegated assignments to 21 scouts, family and friends on 7 days in the period between October 2006 and February 2007 *Comparative shopped in several stores to find the best prices and purchased bins, shelving, survival supplies, food and water.
*Cleared a safe path to get upstairs by organizing boxes, bags, packages and stuff strewn about everywhere down stairs.
*Sorted and organized 10 boxes, bags and garbage pails of school clothing, supplies and lost & found items.
*Organized 70 boxes, bags, packages, stuff and put them on shelves instead of strewn about everywhere upstairs.
*Analyzed and threw away many soiled, infested and damaged items.
*Swept, vacuumed and cleaned both down stairs and up stairs.
*Audited and inventoried 40 shelves containing 90 boxes, bins, bags, etc… of first aid and survival supplies.
*Sifted through over 150 blankets, kept the good ones and repacked them in bins that lock tight to protect from the elements.
*Measured, cut, made and installed shelves for the blanket cabinets so more food and first aid supplies can be organized and stored.
*Removed, emptied, rinsed and refilled 24- 5 gallon jugs of water.
*Audited and inventoried survival supply bins from all classrooms.
*Purchased missing supplies to fill classroom survival supply bins.
*Purchased supplies to fill 3 new additional classroom survival supply bins.
*Purchased emergency food and water to fulfill the schools needs.
*Purchased about $2500 of food and supplies all of which was reimbursed by the school. I was able to get a discount on some items. I met with store managers and or distributed letters of need for donations to this project for which as of yet received no response.Although it was a lot of hard work, I had a lot of fun executing and accomplishing this project. It strengthened relationships with all the scouts involved. It was great to work with staff from my previous school whom I admire. It was so cool telling dad what to do without him talking back to me. It is very satisfying knowing I played and important role in assuring the safety and survival of so many people. It made me wonder how many people are not prepared and reinforced in my life the motto, “Be Prepared”.