Storm Shelter Murals

Buffalo Island Central Junior High School

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Our community of Buffalo Island, like many parts of Northeast Arkansas, has had terrible experiences with tornadoes coming through our area. In partnership with our local Red Cross and our Monette and Leachville City Councils, we decided to focus our efforts on helping anxiety about storms. One way we are helping bring calm during tornados is by painting murals in our local storm shelters. We presented our ideas to Monette City Council, and we have gotten approval and funding from both Monette and Leachville city councils. We have designed concepts for the murals, some that focus on school spirit, some that would give a peaceful atmosphere, and some that are interactive such as a seek-and-find scene of Monette. In a partnership with a local artist, we have figured out how to use a MetaQuest 3 to virtually project the mural design onto the wall so that the students can use it as a guide for painting. Monette City Council has chosen the first design that they would like for us to start with. We are waiting for city hall to choose the dates from our suggestions to open the shelters for us to paint. Once this project is finished, it will hopefully comfort children in both Leachville and Monette as they wait out storms in our storm shelters.