STITTSVILLE - What a difference a year
makes!
Last year members of the
Rotary Club of Ottawa – Stittsville withstood bitterly cold weather in a
weekend campout at Village Square
in Stittsville, demonstrating the tents and equipment involved in the Rotary
Shelter Box program. These Shelter Boxes are shipped to natural disaster areas
around the world to provide shelter and survival equipment for up to ten people
per tent. Thousands have currently been sent to help the earthquake victims in Haiti.
This year above freezing
temperatures prevailed for the Rotary Club’s second annual extreme weekend
campout at Village Square.
Sunny, mild weather prevailed on Friday, Feb. 26 for the setup, with the heavy snow of
the previous night providing a white winter landscape as the setting.
This year the Rotarians set
up their two Shelter Box tents at the station building at Village Square rather than in the centre
of the park like last year. One was set up just to the west of the building.
This was the demonstration tent, with all of the equipment such as pots and
pans and other cooking items laid out inside for visitors to see.
The main tent, in which
Rotarians slept overnight on both Friday and Saturday nights, was set up under
the front roof of the station building. This was done not only to give the tent
a concrete floor underneath but also to prevent any possible snow or rain from
invading the tent due to the lack of a tent door flap. In addition, it allowed
the Rotarians to plug in a television set and set it up just inside the door of
the station building so that they could view the Olympic action, specifically Canada’s
semi-final hockey game on Friday night and the Canadian curling games.
Besides setting up the two
tents, the Rotary Club members also set up a giant banner proclaiming the
Shelter Box program between two trees near Abbott Street so that passing
motorists could be alerted to the extreme campout going on at Village Square.
Firewood was brought in to
the site and stored at the nearby B-P Scout fire pit. This was the scene of a
Saturday evening bonfire and hot dog barbecue.
Rotary Club members Theresa
Qadri, Carolyn Clark, Steve Hunter and Leo Maiorino, along with Rotary
supporter Helene Rivest, spent Friday night in the tent while fellow Rotary Club
member Merv Robblee, who is an avid camper, setting up his own tent nearby and
spending the night there.
Saturday was a big day at the
extreme campout because Stittsville
Public School
representatives dropped by the site to formally present $3,000 to the Shelter
Box program from the school. The funds were raised by the school’s recent
Hearts for Haiti
campaign in which students purchased heart-shaped candies. This $3,000 will
provide three Shelter Boxes. Stittsville
Public School has been a
strong supporter of the Shelter Box program, having already provided funding
for several Shelter Boxes thanks to fundraising initiatives.
Indeed, Stittsville
Public School is going to be used as
an example of what can be done when Stittsville Rotarian Leo Maiorino, who is
the Shelter Box program ambassador for the Ottawa area, distributes a new Shelter Box
information kit for schools to the other eight Rotary Clubs in the area. This
kit may spur support for the Shelter Box program from other schools in the
area.
Friday night was uneventful
for the Rotary campers except for the “peep, peep, peep” of nearby snow
clearing machinery and the unseasonable “drip, drip, drip” of water, running of
the roof of the station building. Yes, it was mild, not at all like freezing
cold conditions of the previous year.
It was not only the change in
the weather which made this year’s extreme campout more comfortable for the
participants. They also learned from last year’s experience and had the extra
blankets available right from the start to ensure a warm overnight experience.
After another night in the
tent on Saturday, the extreme campout ended at 2 p.m. on Sunday which was
another sunny day with above freezing temperatures. The mid-afternoon finale to
the campout meant that the participants could get home in time to watch Canada’s
Olympic gold medal hockey game on television at 3 p.m.