An Alliance High Senior has been selected to attend an agriculture mission trip to Haiti.
18-year-old Ashtyn Shrewsbury, who serves as president the Alliance High FFA, and is also the reigning Box Butte County Fair Queen, is planning to travel to Haiti this summer to participate in the FFA to Haiti Project.
Shrewsbury is the daughter of Justin and Amy Shrewsbury of Alliance.
On January 12, 2010, Haiti endured a devastating earthquake at a catastrophic magnitude of 7.0. There were an estimated 300 thousand buildings destroyed in the earthquake, making one million people homeless within one day.
Brett Nelson, safety director and grain bin builder for Sukup Manufacturing in Sheffield, Iowa, and his wife decided to design a shelter out of grain bin components. After seeing the destruction, and after contacting the Haiti Relief Fund for media help, the Sukup Safe-T-Home was born.
The Sukup Safe-T-Home is a highly-modified 18 foot steel grain bin. The system has a double roof system that functions as a heat shield, and rainfall collection system. It also has built in solar panels that power a set of LED lights. The anchor system uses three ballast boxes around the outside of the home. The boxes can also be used as a raised garden. The Safe-T-Home has been tested to endure up to 130 mile per hour winds, and has a zero seismic load making it practically earthquake proof. The cost for a standard 18 foot Safe-T-Home is $5,700 each with a life expectancy of over 75 years. Fourteen standard units can fit in one shipping container, and each unit can be assembled in about 10 hours with a team four people.
“I applied for it in December because it sounded like a wonderful opportunity to get out and truly make a difference,” Ashtyn said. “The dates I will be going will, hopefully, be June 24-July 2. However, that’s still up in the air. While we are down there we will help build homes, deliver meals, and teach Haiti citizens about how they can utilize what little agricultural resources they have. I was informed of the trip by a friend in eastern Nebraska and once I started looking into I knew it was the opportunity of a lifetime. I’m so extremely excited to get the chance to go!”
The cost of the trip, including airfare, is estimated to be about $2,000. Shrewsbury says she is already working on coordinating fundraisers, which she will announce in the near future.
Shrewsbury also plays trumpet in the AHS band and was a member of the AHS golf team.