STITTSVILLE - There already are 8,000
Shelter Boxes now in earthquake ravaged Haiti, with another 5,000 on the
way. These are some of the over 70,000 Shelter Boxes sent to 48 countries
worldwide in the past decade to provide emergency accommodation and survival
equipment to about 700,000 victims of natural disasters. And this weekend there
will be two Shelter Boxes at Village
Square in downtown Stittsville, giving Stittsville
residents a chance to see a Shelter Box tent and to discover all that is in a
Shelter Box container.
It will also be an
opportunity to see several Stittsville Rotarians actually “walking the walk” as
they will be spending 53 straight hours living in a Shelter Box tent, sleeping
there overnight and using the cooking equipment from the Shelter Box container.
This extreme experience is meant to provide a glimpse of how a Shelter Box can
provide the shelter and survival equipment necessary for up to ten people who
have survived a natural disaster such as Haiti’s recent earthquake.
This will be the second
straight year that Stittsville Rotarians have taken these extreme measures to
publicize the Shelter Box program. Last year’s initial experience at Village Square saw
the Rotarians withstand some of the winter’s coldest temperatures to “survive”
within the confines of a Shelter Box tent. While the Rotarians are hoping for a
little milder winter weather this coming weekend, they will be prepared for
anything.
There will be two Shelter Box
tents set up on the site, one as the Rotarians’ living quarters for their 53
hours outdoors and another as a demonstration tent, with all of the equipment
usually found in a Shelter Box container laid out inside for everyone to see.
Each Shelter Box container includes the tent, sleeping bags, cooking supplies,
a multi-fuel stove, a bag of tools to help in rebuilding, water jugs and
purification tables, among other things. There is enough to keep up to ten
people alive and sheltered for weeks following survival of a natural disaster
in which their homes are destroyed.
The Stittsville Rotarians
will be setting up at Village Square at 9 a.m. this Friday, Feb. 26 and then
will be living right on site through until 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 28, 53
straight hours, all outdoors except for the confines of a Shelter Box tent.
“We will survive off the
contents of an actual Shelter Box,” says Stittsville Rotarian Leo Maiorino who
is also the Ottawa Area Ambassador for Shelter Box Canada. “We will sleep in
the tent and use the cooking supplies from the box.”
Besides raising awareness of
the Shelter Box program, the Stittsville Rotarians hope to raise funds as well.
Each Shelter Box costs $1,000.
Mr. Maiorino has set a goal
of raising $15,000 so that the Rotary Club of Ottawa
– Stittsville can purchase 15 Shelter Boxes to help natural disaster victims
both in Haiti
and elsewhere in the world.
“The goal is to raise $15,000
from our community to purchase 15 additional Shelter Boxes to provide a means
of survival to people in Haiti
and around the world,” he says.
Donations will be accepted on
site, with everyone in Stittsville invited to drop around to Village Square anytime during the
Rotarians’ 53 hours there. Income tax receipts will be issued for any donations
of $20 or more. Village Square is located at the corner of Stittsville Main Street and Abbott Street in
downtown Stittsville.
Donations payable to Shelter
Box Canada, can also be mailed to the Stittsville Rotary Club, 1354 Stittsville Main Street, Stittsville, Ontario K2S 1V4. But the Rotary Club members
are really hopeful that many people drop around to Village Square to see for
themselves how a Shelter Box contains everything needed for survival, whether
for a 53 hour extreme campout in winter conditions in downtown Stittsville or,
more importantly, for short term survival in a natural disaster area such as
present-day Haiti.
Shelter Box (www.shelterbox.ca) is a registered
charitable organization founded in the year 2000 by a Rotarian in the United Kingdom.
The program has seen thousands of Shelter Boxes sent to natural disaster
locations in 48 countries around the world.
Already 8,000 Shelter Boxes
have been deployed to Haiti
with another 5,000 going soon. The deployment of Shelter Boxes in Haiti has now exceeded that of the sunami
disaster in Indonesia.