Started a quarter-century ago, Rotary's outreach to worldwide disasters (300 events in 100 countries) through Shelter Box has taken volunteers and their iconic carton of emergency supplies to countries from Syria to Haiti, Nigeria to Mozambique, Ukraine to the Philippines.
"We've sheltered over 2.2 million people over the last twenty years," reported Lora Helmer, Rotary District 5100 lead ambassador for Shelter Box. "Building Peace--One Family at a Time" was a description shown on a Zoomed image for the May 24 Pearl Rotary's audience.
The rescue kits may include personal hygiene articles, mosquito netting and typically a tent. "We help families create a home," Lora, a White Salmon-Bingen Rotarian observed. Later, she added: "We help build communities one family at a time."
Rotary's Shelter Box support has become a fundraising effort of 5100 youth exchange students who raised $8.000 this year. Pearl members added to the fund by purchasing home-baked chocolate chip cookies brought to a recent breakfast meeting by Jett Barker, who will go to Argentine this fall as the club's outbound student.
You can learn more about the non-profit at its comprehensive website: http://www.shelterboxusa.org.
