Virtual Activity: Disaster Preparedness Kit Scavenger Hunt
There’s a home fire, and you need to evacuate your house in two minutes. Frantically, you look around for a first-aid kit or a radio. The rest of your family is running out the door, and you follow, unsure of where to go. This is what it’s like dealing with a natural disaster without being prepared for it: there can be a lot of nerves, fear, and uncertainty. It’s important to not only learn ourselves, but teach others about disaster preparedness to ensure that people can be safe when a disaster strikes. Especially as youth volunteers, there are so many opportunities to learn how to get an emergency preparedness kit, how to make a disaster response plan, how to be informed—how to be Red Cross Ready.
Even with the current pandemic, youth can still educate themselves and others about which items to put inside of an emergency kit, while working together to make one—virtually! By hosting a preparedness kit virtual scavenger hunt, youth volunteers have an exciting way to test their knowledge about disaster preparedness kits, such as required medicines and the need for cash and coins that are necessary in an emergency, while also gathering everyday household items to start building their own disaster preparedness kit.
During the Northern California Coastal Region’s Leadership Development Center (LDC), I hosted and participated in a preparedness kit virtual scavenger hunt. This activity utilizes a handout of riddles and clues corresponding to a particular item that is a part of a preparedness kit. With my group, we deciphered phrases such as “this device will help you see in the dark” (a flashlight) and raced through our homes to find each item. Throughout the activity, we discussed the purpose of each item during an emergency. Snapping pictures with our various preparedness items along the way, my group bonded over our knowledge of disaster preparedness as we built our kits together. Now if there’s a disaster near us, we’ll be ready to evacuate our homes and have our kit ready to go with us.
Here, you will find an example of the Preparedness Kit Virtual Scavenger Hunt from the Southern California Region’s virtual leadership camp, GLOW Red.
-Ariana Deng
National Youth Council Member
