Kids, steal the spotlight and help your community prepare for disasters

Dust off your selfie sticks and warm-up your vocal cords, Sunshine Coast Council is inviting primary-school students to enter the 2021 Sunshine Coast Get Ready Schools Competition. 

Now in its third year, the nationally acclaimed competition challenges youngsters to create a 30-second video highlighting the importance of having a “WHAT-IF-PLAN” so everyone knows what to do when disaster strikes.

Sunshine Coast Council Mayor and Local Disaster Management Group Chair Mark Jamieson said students could not only win great prizes but could also make a real difference to their community. 

“Experience shows communities that are well prepared and aware before a disaster occurs are more resilient and able to recover faster,” Mayor Jamieson said.

“Educating kids about disasters empowers and encourages them to have important conversations with their friends and families, helping spread the message further.

“As we on the Sunshine Coast know all too well, disasters can strike anytime and anywhere.

“It’s not a matter of if, but when, and no one is immune.

“We all have a role to play when it comes to being prepared.”

Students can enter in teams of one to five people and the winning team will be mentored by council’s disaster management team to create council’s 2021 Get Ready television, radio and social media campaign.

Winning team members will each receive a family evacuation kit. Runner-up prizes include Get Ready packs and emergency kits.

For all the details on how to enter, visit the competition page on the Have Your Say section of council’s website www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au. 

Entries are now open and close midnight Friday, 30 April 2021. Finalists will be announced by Monday, 24 May 2021.

The community will then have their chance to vote for their favourite finalist, with the winner to be announced on Friday, 18 June 2021 on council’s Facebook page.

The competition is part of Council’s Get Ready Schools Program which delivers engaging education sessions about disaster preparedness to schools throughout the region. 

In 2019 the program won the local government category at the Get Ready Queensland Resilient Australia Awards and the Local Government Award at the Resilient Australia Awards. 

The Sunshine Coast Get Ready Schools Competition is proudly supported by the Queensland Government’s Get Ready Queensland Program. For more information visit www.getready.qld.gov.au.

Image: The 2020 Sunshine Coast Get Ready Schools Competition winners - Heidi Brumwell, Jordan Gormley, Zac Zeremes, Shyla Lamont and Archie Tollner from St Joseph’s Primary School, Nambour.