Posted by: thepinetree on 01/22/2010 08:19 AM
Updated by: thepinetree on 01/22/2010 08:37 AM
Expires: 01/01/2015 12:00 AM
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Calaveras Rotary Clubs Send Shelter Box to Haiti
ARNOLD, CA – On January 21, the four Rotary Clubs of Calaveras County purchased a Shelter Box for earthquake victims in Haiti. The clubs and their presidents are Arnold Rotary, Dave Webb; Angels-Murphys Rotary, Jim Bailey; Angels Camp Centennial Rotary, David Harrison; and West Calaveras Rotary, Jim Frost...
The jointly supported donation will purchase a 49-gallon size plastic box containing a 10-person tent, sleeping mats and sleeping bags, water purification tablets, a multi-fueled cook stove, and a tool kit, and other supplies designed to shelter a family of 10.
The Shelter Box organization landed personnel in Haiti on January 14, and by the next day had delivered 500 containers of supplies to the affected areas. Their work there has progressed. The donor clubs will be able to track the delivery at the international organization’s website, www.shelterboxusa.org.
Shelter Box began about nine years ago as a grassroots Rotary Club project by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, Cornwall District in Great Britain. Struck with the urgent world-wide need for a self-contained emergency shelter unit when disaster occurs, the developers researched suppliers and, through trial and error, developed the Shelter Box and also the international network to deliver the units anywhere in the world on nearly a moment’s notice. The international relief agency Feed the Children has called the Shelter Box “the best disaster relief tool they have seen in their 20 years of experience.”
Many of the 52 Rotary Clubs of the Central Valley and the Foothills, Rotary District 5220, have chosen Shelter Box as their initial response to the Haiti disaster. The district has a world community service committee which works to help clubs maximize the impact of their work around the world. Rotary International, headquartered in Evanston, Illinois, announced January 15 that the worldwide humanitarian organization was establishing a Haiti Relief Fund through the Rotary International Foundation. There are 17 Rotary Clubs in Haiti, and these groups are working with Rotary International to ensure that the Shelter Box containers will be deployed effectively to the earthquake victims.
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