Bainbridge Prepares helps preschool be ready for emergencies

Published 1:30 am Thursday, June 12, 2025

Since October of 2024, Bainbridge Prepares has worked with Hazel Creek Montessori school to bolster its emergency preparedness.

What began as a presentation for Montessori school staff, turned into a larger project to bolster both the school’s emergency preparedness and support families in preparing for emergencies at home.

Janice and Ollie Pederson, owners of Hazel Creek, are both Bainbridge Prepares volunteers and wanted to encourage students and their families to prepare at home. Currently, the school is made up of a community of around 160 families.

“It’s taken us, I would say, over a period of five years, to really get to this point of being, I wouldn’t say, 100% prepared. We never are, but we’re close to that, and that will always be our goal,” she said. “We have trained our staff, we have grab and go backpacks in every classroom that would have the emergency supplies necessary should something happen and we have to leave the buildings.”

Pederson said Hazel Creek organized a competition to encourage families to work on their own emergency preparedness at home. She said they drew winners out of the hat, with the winning families receiving tuition credit tied to their level of emergency preparedness.

“We would encourage the children to go home and help collect the things that you might need to put into a backpack or a grab and go bag,” she said.

To celebrate emergency preparedness and educate and familiarize preschoolers on interacting with firefighters, the Bainbridge Island Fire Department visited the school as part of a May 4 safety celebration.

BI firefighter Kiel Reijnen, who went to Hazel Creek, participated in the demonstration.

Erik Smith, a Bainbridge Prepares volunteer focusing on water sanitation hygiene and an emergency team leader, said he believes Hazel Creek is a model school for emergency preparedness. Smith said the school has successfully addressed four foundational emergency pillars; water, food, communication, shelter and sanitation.

Smith encourages Bainbridge residents to do the same emergency preparedness at home including stocking up on 30 days worth of emergency supplies such as food, water, and medications. As well as developing emergency sanitation and communication plans.

“If you wait until the disaster to develop your sanitation plan, you’re going to make people sick,” he said.

Smith said one of the goals of preparing ahead of time is to keep people safe and if something does go wrong having the training and resiliency to be able to adapt.

He said one misconception people have in a disaster situation is that help is readily available. However, due to the island’s remoteness and high likelihood of a significant earthquake and tsunami, experts encourage residents to proactively prepare ahead of time.

The state Department of Natural Resources estimates most populated areas of the state have a 40-80% chance of an earthquake in the next 50 years.

“If you’re trying to come to a situation that is high stress…you need to execute properly,” Smith said. “You’ve got to have the processes, got to have the training, got to have done it before, and then your likelihood of success is pretty high.”