This is a continuing series of diaries highlighting ShelterBox and the next new things happening.
http://www.shelterboxusa.org/
Morning Kossacks in Kosland! Happy Sunday to you all. Please recommend, facebook and tweet my diary today. See? I given marching orders. I was told, if you want something to happen with online activism, you have to have to guts to ASK. So I am asking!
Two years ago, we, Kossacks raised something in the neighborhood $130,000 for ShelterBox during the Haitian crisis. Carolina Stargazer and many of you went on to help raise another 10,000. I got alot of help from you counting, fundraising and bulding awareness about ShelterBox and their work.
It was a mighty effort, your actions and your donations were very important in that terrible time of need. Believe it or not, just your sharing of links to ShelterBox to your friends and colleagues raised the profile and awareness of ShelterBox organization beyond their wildest dreams. Thus, is the power of compassionate people. How could you know that spreading the word about ShelterBox would be so vital in fundraising during the tragic event know as the Haitian Crisis?
YOU provided
Shelter, Warmth and Dignity
for people when all seemed lost for so many.
HOPE for this child. (tears roll)
I was invited by ShelterBox USA to attend the ShelterBox Conference in Orlando. I paid my way and my hotel, but they covered the conference costs and the dinner. As your servant, I felt I need to to get more informed about ShelterBox as I knew that i was going to keep "coming back to the well" for support in the next disaster. The "well" = Daily Kos.
I have attended sessions and smoozed with the ShelterBox family, the staff, volunteers, ambassadors and ShelterBox Response team members, and ShelterBox representatives from Brazil, Argentina, Philippines and Mexico and of course UK.
I also got to hang out with and talk to an amazing fellow, Tom Henderson, the founder of ShelterBox and his lovely wife Jane. He started with 143 boxes in 2001 to India.
http://www.shelterboxusa.org/...
No small feat to go from 143 boxes in 2001 to where we are today in 12 years.
ShelterBox has become the "shelter experts" in times of crisis and is developing strategic partnerships with other emergency aid organization like the IOM, World Vision, and others. I will write more on these partnerships in another diary.
I am in the process of becoming a ShelterBox Ambassador because of you. I will be your ambassador to ShelterBox. (You don't have to be a Rotarian to be one!)
We see this
And respond!
Scouts in the Philippines!
http://shelterboxusa.org/...
More after the squiggle for ShelterBox fans at the Daily Kos.
While no disaster is on the front page of national papers or blasting from the T.V. screen at us, our minds go to other things. The Republican primary campaign is in full on mode and as a political junkie, I am just as guilty as the rest of you for enjoying the various writings of my favorite Daily Kos bloggers. That said, when my invitation to go came in my inbox, I knew I owed it to you to get updated on the latest ShelterBox and share with my friends here and with my Rotary Club back in Lethbridge. With hubby's financial and emotional support, I came to to Orlando to get the latest.
I was not disappointed!!!
I learned about SRT selection and training. I learned about the lasted deployments and and developments. Plus I learned about the ShelterBox Solution!
The ShelterBox Solution! Please Click on the link!
http://www.shelterbox.org/...
ShelterBox has updated their boxes with solar lights. And more importantly they have shifted from "one box fits all disasters" to different sizes of tents. One example is a two person tent that a small family can carry along as they migrate in desperate drought conditions as in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia and Somalia.
They have developed a three skin tent for the harshest winters in the Turkey earth quake. In the recent Thailand floods, SRT delivered 1,000 midi tents which are easier for families to move as the water recede. They are smaller to transport, easier to put up and take up less space.
Not on the website but in development there is a new small tent that people can buy as a camping tent for regular folks but sporting the ShelterBox logo to help build awareness. It is being tested by the Boy Scouts this year. Also in development is a longer lasting "pallet box" which is a ready to put together small wooden home with a the ability to lock and containing a small sleeping area sectioned off by mosquito netting for Malaria infested areas.
Last night was the Humanitarian Awards ceremony, I was so privileged to be in the company of so many dedicated ShelterBox supporters from around the country and the world.
I met amazing people and learned alot.
I knew that we had prepostitioned boxes around the world, but I didn't know about is that it takes 5 months to get more tents in a major crisis, so it is critical not to wait till a disaster happens, to find our you need more shelters than you have on hand. So raising awareness and donations between disasters is vital in being prepared for the next big disaster. Reserves need to be built in advance of need.
So as I pack up I have sometime finally to thank you personally for your help in raising awareness and funding for ShelterBox.
Thanks Dee, David and others for baby sitting me, I was not able to respond to comments in the first few diaries. But I will be here packing up.
Future diaries will be about new ShelterBox memorandums of agreements with other NGOs, with Rotary International and new ShelterBox affiliations. I also write more specifically about the new products and innovations being developed by ShelterBox.
Please tweet, recommend, facebook and share this diary.
But more importantly!
Tweet, facebook and share
ShelterBox USA
http://www.shelterboxusa.org/
ShelterBox UK
http://www.shelterbox.org.uk/
ShelterBox Canada
http://www.shelterboxcanada.org/
ShelterBox shop!
http://www.shelterboxshop.com/
I will write and post more when I return home download pictures, and process my notes and have a reliable internet connection.
Morning!