Monongahela Rotarians provide lockdown buckets for students
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Helping assemble lockdown buckets are, from left, Tom Thompson, senior security adviser and truancy officer at Ringgold Middle School; Ringgold High School juniors Alexa Skorvan and Kylee Krivijanski; and seniors Alexa Vaccaro and Anna Vogt.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Ringgold High School seniors Alexa Vaccaro, left, and Anna Vogt help with the project.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Tom Graney and Rebekah Puckey help assemble lockdown buckets.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Ringgold High School junior Kylee Krivijanski and Rotarian Steve Dragan help with the lockdown buckets.
Rotary International’s motto is “service above self,” and almost invariably that means providing time and financial support toward something people actually can use.
“I’ve been a Rotarian for 20 years,” Betsie Trew said. “I can honestly say this is the only service project I’ve ever been involved in that I hope never gets used.”
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Rotary Club of Monongahela member Sandy Davis chairs the lockdown bucket project.
She is serving as the Rotary Club of Monongahela’s 2018-19 president, and a major endeavor of the club this year is to provide in-case-of-emergency-type kits for students throughout Ringgold School District and at Madonna Catholic Regional School.
The kits are based on what has come to be known as lockdown buckets, to help provide accommodations for some basic needs.
“We hope they never use these,” club member Sandy Davis, who is chairing the project, reiterated. “But if they should be locked in a room for any length of time, I know my nerves get the best of me and I’m sure the nerves would get the best of them, and they’re going to have to use a bathroom.”
And so during the Jan. 24 meeting at Hills Restaurant in New Eagle, where the club meets at noon each Thursday, Rotarians joined with guests to pack buckets full of necessities such as toilet paper, hand sanitizer, paper towels and snap-on seats, plus duct tape and shower curtains to provide some semblance of privacy.
Other items donated by members of the club and the community include flashlights with batteries, rubber gloves and ibuprofen, and the school district is equipping them with hammers and door-stop wedges.
“I never dreamt it would come to this, but that’s the society we live in today,” Tom Thompson, senior security adviser and truancy officer at Ringgold Middle School, said while extending thanks to the club and others who donated supplies.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Debra Mangino
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Rotarian Debra Mangino helps pack lockdown buckets.
“And we’re well-prepared at Ringgold,” he asserted. “Believe me. We’re way ahead in the game as far as safety, and this really helps.”
Donating the buckets, which otherwise would have constituted the project’s largest expense, was Lowe’s in Rostraver Township, with club member Tom Graney making the connection with the store.
“Personally, having three kids in school, it’s scary what can happen now,” Lowe’s representative Rebekah Puckey said. “And to be able to support the kids in the community and give them something that they hopefully will never need, but may, someday: absolutely. We’re there for it.”
Four Ringgold High School students attended the meeting to help assemble the lockdown buckets: seniors Alexa Vaccaro and Anna Vogt, both of Monongahela, and juniors Kylee Krivijanski of New Eagle and Alexa Skorvan of Carroll Township.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Ringgold High School junior Kylee Krivijanski helps pack lockdown buckets.
“I think it’s a really good project, and I think more people should get involved,” Kylee said. “I think we should inform more people to get it on it.”
She gave her perspective about the types of incidents that could result in lockdowns.
“It’s scary to think about things like that actually happening in our country, but it’s better to be prepared,” she said. “Going to a school that has really good security, I feel safe in our school. But I worry about other people having to worry about that.”
Alexa Skorvan’s worry also is for others.
“I’m not as much concerned about the high school, because we’re prepared and we know what we’re doing,” she explained. “But the elementary schools and middle schools that have younger kids who don’t understand what’s happening or how it’s going to happen, I feel that would be more concerning than for the high schoolers.”
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Anissa Ribnicky, left, and Rebekah Puckey represent Lowe’s in Rostraver Township, which donated the buckets.
Impetus for assembling the lockdown buckets came during a meeting at which the club hosted Ringgold Superintendent Megan Van Fossan and Clayton Shell, chief of police districtwide.
“This came up, and they said, ‘Absolutely. That would be a wonderful thing,'” Trew recalled. “And so the club adopted it as a project.”
Complementing the donation of supplies, the club is covering remaining costs with money accrued through fundraising efforts.
The next event is the club’s second annual Funny Fundraiser, scheduled for 7 p.m. March 23 at the New Eagle Social Hall, 156 Chess St. Featured are comedians Tom Anzalone, David Kaye and Kevin Whelan. For tickets, visit slapsticksprod.laughstub.com/event.cfm?id=522909.
For more information about the Rotary Club of Monongahela, visit monongahelarotary.org.
Members of the Rotary Club of Monongahela and guests display some of the lockdown buckets.