By Stephanie Schupska
University of
Georgia
When a tornado ripped through Dylan Brooks’ house in 2004, Walt
Disney World wasn’t exactly the first thing on his mind. But
more than a year and a half later, the Florida theme park would
connect him to that traumatic day.
On Sept. 13, 2004, at Madison County Middle School, it was an
early-release day. “It was really cloudy and really rainy,”
Brooks remembered.
As tornado warnings flashed across the county, he and his family
left home for his grandparents’ better-built house. When they
finally got back home, they found their house destroyed.
Back at the middle school, John Scott was gearing up for a
football game that afternoon. That’s when a tornado started
tearing through the area. In another part of the county, the
tornado almost killed Samantha Wood’s best friend and her
family. And Steven Goldman said his “dad’s co-worker and one of
his real good friends lost their houses.”
All four students are now eighth-graders. Together, through the
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension 4-H program, they
entered a project on tornado awareness and survival in the
Christopher Columbus Awards.
That’s where Disney World comes in. As one of eight national
finalists, the group traveled to Orlando, Fla., on May 28.
The Christopher Columbus Awards program (www.columbusfdn.org) is
a national competition that taps the natural curiosity and
creativity of kids. It’s designed for sixth- through eighth-
grade students. A team of three or four students must identify a
problem in the community and devise a solution that requires
them to obtain hands-on experience with the scientific
process.
The Madison County team planned an education program to help
their community prepare for a tornado. They developed a tornado
survival kit that includes identification bracelets and safety
shoes, items the students considered most important, especially
after the storm passed.
They also designed a brochure and made a video in an effort to
place in a competition they had learned about only this year,
said Beth Scott-Brown, John Scott’s mother, who helped chaperon
their trip.
“This is the first 4-H group, and they made it all the way,” she
said.
Their coach, Jacqueline Nunn, is a sophomore at Georgia Southern
University in Statesboro, Ga. “It’s very, very exciting,” she
said. “I’m very proud of them. I know how hard they worked.”
On Tuesday, May 30, the 4-H’ers faced the judges in Orlando.
They were “the only 4-H Club in the nation” to do so, said
Cheryl Varnadoe, a UGA Extension 4-H specialist. On Thursday,
June 1, they learned how they fared.
Through a thunderstorm of confetti, the 4-H team claimed the
gold. They are one of two gold medal winning teams, and as a
team they received a $2,000 savings bond.
The team from Danielsville, Ga., had faced middle school
students from Hesperia, Calif.; Colonia, N.J.; Levittown, N.Y.;
Bexley, Ohio; Chesterland, Ohio; Whiteface, Texas; and
Stoughton, Wis. And before their trip to Orlando, they faced
Varnadoe and Bo Ryles, the Georgia 4-H youth leader.
“On Sept. 13, 2004, a tornado ripped through Madison County,”
Brooks said as the group started their presentation. “It was one
of three in the last five years.”
This number is especially important, considering that 38.4
percent of homes in the county are manufactured homes, Brooks
continued.
Nearly 1,000 tornados hit the United States each year, and
Georgia is eighth in the nation for tornadoes. State
climatologist David Stooksbury said the state has had 122 in the
past five years.
“We developed and presented education programs, and we educated
our community on steps to follow to survive a tornado,” Goldman
said.
“We’re keeping our community from getting blown away by a
tornado,” they said as their presentation concluded. And then
Wood stepped into sparkling ruby slippers and wrapped it
up: “We’re not in Georgia anymore.”
(Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
