RAMONA -- After adding words like evacuation, loss and Reverse 911 to their vocabulary during last month's wildfires, Hanson Elementary School's 700 students learned one more term this week: Prepared.

The lesson, along with new backpacks complete with hygiene kits, flashlights, notebooks and teddy bears, was delivered to students this week by a team of Save the Children emergency responders.

The crew of nonprofit workers arrived in San Diego just days after the start of the wind-whipped fires that scorched more than 300,000 acres throughout the county -- killing at least 10 people and leading to evacuation orders for more than 500,000 residents -- to help local families and children by providing safe places to play in evacuation centers and shelters.

Once the smoke cleared, however, the group directed its efforts to include financial assistance and outreach to students in the communities of Ramona, Valley Center and Campo.

"I feel much safer," 10-year-old Noe Larios said Thursday, after finishing a 45-minute Save the Children presentation on what to take when evacuating and how to be prepared for fires.

"I didn't have anything," he said, explaining that he didn't take clothes with him when he evacuated with his family. "I didn't even have clothes. We had to buy them."

Noe said he was planning on adding a first-aid kit, a change of clothes and maybe even an address book to his backpack before putting it away for the next emergency.

The goal of the nonprofit's program, titled Resilient and Ready, is to give students the opportunity to talk about their concerns, share their memories and fears and then learn how to be ready in case of another emergency, said Kathleen Whalen, a social program manager with Save the Children. The backpacks, Whalen added, give the students something to start off with.

"It gives (the students) a sense of empowerment," Hanson Principal Carol Tennebaum said. "It's 'If I need to go, I can go and I have my precious things with me.' "

In addition to the backpack, the discussions and the activities --- which included the parachute game, where students have to work together juggling balls on a large colorful tarp --- Tennebaum said the group has also been an invaluable resource for the district, providing five $5,000 grants to schools in the district within days of making contact.

Grants and backpacks for students at four schools in the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District are also being doled out, Whalen said. The funds can be used by the schools and district at their discretion, but are meant to aid families who lost their homes in the fires.

At Hanson, Tennebaum said, they had more than two dozen students and staff members who lost their homes in last month's fires.

The school, she said, was able to use the grant money in a variety of ways -- buying gas cards for families that have a lengthy commute to campus from their new residence, buying textbooks and school supplies for students, and covering the fee for the school's before- and after-school program.

"I've never seen anything like it," Tennebaum said. "They came to me and said, 'You have the need, we have the money. We want to get it to the kids. Let's do it quickly.' "

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.