LASAS students present toys, games, activities and a $500 check to Jane Jones of the LSU AgCenter for the children’s center in the State Evacuation Shelter near LSU-Alexandria. The students were accompanied by Debbie Bain (Right – Back Row), Principal, and Dawn Pitre (Not pictured), teacher and project leader.

Jim Shipp, Shelter Manager for the LSU AgCenter, takes the LASAS students on a tour of the new state shelter and explains how the shelter was able to house more than 3,500 evacuees during Hurricane Gustav.

Dr. John Barnett, Central Region director, and Jane Jones, Extension Agent (Family and Consumer Sciences), of the LSU AgCenter share evacuation shelter experiences during Hurricane Gustav with students from the Louisiana School for Agricultural Sciences (LASAS). The students visited the State Emergency Shelter near LSU-Alexandria on December 10, 2008, at the culmination of a school and community project to provide children’s toys, games and activities to the shelter for future disasters.

To visualize what it would be like to be housed in an emergency shelter, students from the Louisiana School for Agricultural Sciences (LASAS) in Bunkie, La., visited the state emergency shelter located next to LSU-A on Dec. 10, 2008. This was part of an LASAS school and community project of providing children’s toys, activities and games to this large state-owned shelter.

Since the LSU AgCenter manages the shelter, the students and their teacher, Dawn Pitre, collaborated with the AgCenter to determine children’s activity needs for future disasters. From the beginning of the school year, students built a wooden storage cabinet in shop classes, made toys in home economics classes, collected new toys and games, and conducted fundraisers to buy equipment such as a TV/DVD player.

Greeting the students as they arrived at the shelter on December 10 were the following LSU AgCenter employees: Dr. John Barnett, Central Region director; Jane Jones, extension agent in family and consumer sciences; and  Jim Shipp, shelter manager. Barnett shared what it was like to have more than 3,500 evacuees and hundreds of volunteers there during Hurricane Gustav. Jones shared experiences working with school-age children, and Shipp gave the students a tour of the large facility. At the end of the tour, pictures were taken of the students and their school sponsors presenting the items they made and collected. The highlight of the event was the presentation of an oversized $500 check (representing the actual check) to the LSU AgCenter for purchasing needed equipment and supplies.