L-R: Evan Moe and Alex Pascua, Arbor Heights 5th graders, check out the ShelterBox website, a Global Rotary Club project. The school raised money toward a box, which includes a tent and vital supplies, to be given to a family in Haiti. The school kids chose this charity after researching several.
Principal Dr. Carol Coram and her Arbor Heights Elementary School raised $567.39 for ShelterBox, a Global Rotary Club Project, to benefit the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Arbor Heights Elementary School fourth and fifth graders researched several charitable organizations assisting Haiti. A special assembly was held to present their findings. All students (kindergarten through fifth grade) voted to determine which organization should received the money raised by the entire student population. The overwhelming choice was ShelterBox.
Dr. Coram said she was very proud of her students, and also because she is a past-president of the Rotary Club of West Seattle.
“I had the opportunity at the last regional Rotary District Conference, in Victoria, to see the contents of the box with the tent set up,” she said. “It’s like setting up a home. One shelter box goes to one family. The box is very compact, but it seems to meet a lot of their needs.”
Rotary’s ShelterBox program started in 2000. The first consignment of 143 boxes was sent to earthquake victims in the Indian state of Gujarat in January 2001. They helped victims of the 2004 Tsunami, and currently boxes are helping those in Chile suffering from their recent earthquake. The program now has about 150 volunteers.
The 40.7 gallon, green boxes average about 120 pounds and cost about $750 each. They include a tent designed to withstand extreme temperatures, high winds and heavy rainfall. Internally, each tent has privacy partitions that allow recipients to divide the space as they see fit.
While the contents vary slightly depending on the specific needs of those caught in a disaster, they generally contain a children’s pack containing drawing books, crayons and pens, thermal blankets and insulated ground sheets, essential in areas where temperatures plummet at nightfall.
Where malaria is prevalent mosquito nets are supplied, as well a life saving means of water purification. A basic tool kit containing a hammer, axe, saw, trenching shovel, hoe head, pliers and wire cutters, and a wood burning or multi-fuel stove, pans, utensils, bowls, mugs and water storage containers. According to its website, the box itself can be used for storage or “a cot for a newly born baby.”
