PORTLAND, Ore. — A backpack is an essential teenage accessory, but the packs Anastasia Klingler is selling aren't for schoolbooks. She creates emergency kits full of supplies for survival in the aftermath of an earthquake.
The 18-year-old entrepreneur is the founder and CEO of Oregon EQ Kits. Her mission: prepare Oregonians for earthquakes, specifically the Big One along the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
“My key thing is that no matter how busy you are, and you can be crazy busy…you must get prepared,” Klingler said. “Because it's just, in my mind, one of the requirements of living on the Cascadia Subduction Zone.”
In between her senior year schoolwork at St. Mary’s Academy, Klingler shops for supplies and packs her emergency kits to sell and send across the state.
Each emergency kit has enough supplies for a family of four to survive for at least 72 hours.
Inside you will find 7,200 calories worth of food rations, canned food, water, water filtration tablets, Mylar blankets, ponchos, work gloves, waterproof matches, waste bags, heavy-duty gorilla tape, a flashlight, first aid kit, pocket knife, emergency hand crank radio, and printed map of emergency nodes. But that’s not all.
They sell for $149 a kit. Klingler says that is the lowest price she could get them down to, while still including all the essentials.
“Last but not least, a deck of playing cards…for entertainment purposes,” she said as she showed of the contents of her emergency kit.
Oregon EQ Kits started as a way for Klingler to get her friends and family prepared. Three years ago, she grandmother called her, asking for advice on how to prepare for an earthquake. After a lot of research Klingler started making kits for people in her life.
“I just started making them for family friends, neighbors. And then it slowly grew as I wanted to reach more people and get more people prepared,” she said. “Now it's like my small little business I'm running and trying to educate people and bring awareness to everyone.”
She turned a project to get her loved ones prepared into a profitable business. She sells about 10 kits a week, but her goals are not about making money. Her goal is to help her community.
“I really do feel that it's helping people. I really do believe that every family that gets on of these kits is going to be prepared. And that just makes me feel so much better whenever I deliver them, like OK, this family will be safe after this earthquake,” Klingler said.
Klinger will graduate from high school this spring. Then, it’s off to college. She hasn’t chosen what school she’ll attend just yet, but she knows she wants to major in business.
“This experience has taught me that I want to make a positive impact through business, because I think that’s a big part of what I want to do,” she said.
Klingler also gives free, informational presentations in the community to raise awareness about earthquake preparedness and the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
Upcoming events:
- Pizza and Preparedness Night
- February 10
- Fremont United Methodist Church
- Earthquake Preparedness Event: featuring expert Steve Eberlein, food and water suppliers, possibly the Portland firefighter crew, other experts.
- April 19
- Catlin Gabel School
For more information on Oregon EQ Kits and to buy yours now head to www.oregoneqkit.com.