Under the support of Professor Jami Swindell and Director Lindsey Elliott, Ms. Bobbie Stiritz of PCB Bank, Ms. Brandy Patrick of US Bank, and Mr. Scott of Rolla Fire Station, our first week-long summer camp was successfully held in the Interdisciplinary Building of Missouri S&T in the week of June 29, reaching 23 summer campers.

Campers role-played as citizens of five cities, each facing a different major hazard: St. Louis (tornadoes), Los Angeles (wildfires), Houston (flooding), Puerto Rico (hurricanes), and San Antonio (winter storms). To tell the “citizens” of each city apart, campers wore a color of shirt unique to their city, and took on roles such as mayors, emergency managers, and resilience officers.

Throughout the week, campers built their city, identified its leading hazards, and discussed their community’s priorities. They explored how to use economics and finance to move money in a positive direction — from reactive spending on disasters to proactive investment that prevents hazards from becoming disasters. Along the way, they learned how to make wallets to store their saved money, how to save in order to leverage sale opportunities, and much more.

Before the week wrapped up, campers sang their way through the different hazards and celebrated with an Independence Day dance party, leaving with a “Resilience Hero” Certificate.

Great thanks go to PCB Bank, US Bank, and the Rolla Fire Station for their strong support. Representatives from PCB Bank and US Bank joined as guest speakers, bringing real-world banking and financial decision-making to life for campers as they managed their own wallets and savings. The Rolla Fire Station shared a first responder’s perspective on hazard preparedness and community safety, giving campers a firsthand look at how their role-play towns connect to real emergency response in their own community.

Under the support of Director Martina Baur, Director Lauren, and Ms. Natalie, our second summer camp was successfully held at Kaleidoscope Discovery Center in Rolla, MO, on July 6–11, reaching out to 21 summer campers!

21 Resilience Heroes role-played as citizens of four hazard-prone cities, which are St. Louis (tornadoes), Los Angeles (wildfires), Houston (flooding), and Puerto Rico (hurricanes). They played such roles as Mayors, Emergency Managers, and Resilience Officers, … Together they built their cities, identified local hazards, and practiced moving money from reactive disaster spending to proactive prevention by leveraging economics and finance, while playing “Shark Tank” to develop hazards/disaster mitigation businesses to make money for their communities to thrive, achieving their resilience goals. The week wrapped up with campers singing their way through different hazards and celebrating the resilience goals they achieved.

Great thanks go to Ms. Bobbie Stiritz of PCB Bank and Ms. Brandy Patrick of US Bank for sharing real-world banking and financial decision-making with campers!