Guests: Jim O’Reilly, Nicole Barry, Josh Hashagen
Hooray for Josh for being the Sargent at Arms!
Greeter next week: Will and Bethany; Scribe next week: Mark Eithier
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what ships are for” William G. T. Shedd
This day in history
- 1893—Shredded wheat machine patented;
- 1939—Synthetic vitamin K invented;
- 1960—The Twist Chubby Checker released (released the previous year by Hank Ballard but no one really noticed)
No birthday festivities this week.
Anniversary: Jim Verzino, August 5, 3 years with our club (more with Noon Club)
Rotary minute: Update your information in Club Runner! People can’t find out how to bring you their business if they don’t know what it is! How do I do that? Go to our Website (www.brattleborosunriserotary.org), click on “Member Area” and log in. Click on “Member Area” once you are logged in and right under “My ClubRunner” is “Edit my profile.” On the Personal Info tab, you can enter all your information.
Scholarship recipient Nicole Barry joined the club. She will be a sophomore at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. She is Alisa’s daughter. She is studying Anthropology and Environmental Science. She will be going to graduate school to focus on Medical Anthropology after undergrad. She took a gap year where she went to Honduras and Madagascar, and she will be spending her Spring semesters abroad this and her Junior year. This Spring, through SIT, she is going on a medical anthropology program that will take her to DC, Vietnam, Argentina and South Africa. She thanked the Club for the scholarship.
Announcements:
- The Springfield Club President’s wife was killed in a car accident. It was tragic; she was very young. Their young son was in the car with her.
- The coffee shop is open! Profits go to our scholarship recipient in Honduras. $12/bag
- Tristam is now one of 21 individuals in Rotary who is a technical coordinator of the Cadre program in this region. Rotary is really engaged in making sure the Rotary Foundation dollars are well-used. Please spread the word about the group for technical assistance.
- Garden planning is on hold for now, thanks to Debra! She weeded and so we are all off the hook for now. We will need some workers in the fall; stay tuned.
- Board meeting tomorrow at WKVT at 7.15 AM.
- Trivia is coming! Contact Sandy Shriver for info. or to be more involved. We hold a monthly trivia night and the proceeds go to benefit a charity partner. It is $20 and includes dinner. There is a cash bar. We will start on Sept. 17. We will hold the October night on Indigenous People’s Day, our normal schedule (2nd Monday of the month).
- By-law revision group will be setting a meeting time. It will likely be a morning meeting. Stay tuned for info. from Kevin.
- Our Foundation Chair, Jim, will be bringing up sponsorship of an international project at the Board meeting tomorrow. Talk to Jim or email him (jimmy44@gmail.com) with feedback or ideas for specific project. Polio, Shelter Box and Pure Water are all projects of the Rotary Foundations. We can put more effort toward existing projects.
- Mona sent Lucy, our future exchange student, the photos from last week. She will be here in 3 ½ weeks!
- The Pergola Build is Sept. 22. We are working with Turning Point Center of Windham County to build a pergola on their property at the corner of Flat and Elm Streets. Erin is designing the pergola. There will be a sign-up sheet for building and bringing BBQ items—look for that in your email. We are looking for a building project manager if anyone is interested! We are also looking for wood donations.
Cards: Queen of Clubs; no one won the $19,000!
Brags
- In her day job, Valerie is seeing a lot of elderly people who are struggling to keep up with their homes, fuel bills, etc. Thank goodness for the Windham County Heat Fund (who we donate to each year).
- Jeremy, Mona’s son, has been inducted into the National Technical Society. Congratulations!
- Love and Information plays at Putney’s Next Stage. Jim Maxwell is in it. If you want to go August 9 and go to dinner at Echo beforehand, let KJ know.
- Dan still has leftover beverages from the Welcome Center. If you donated drinks and what it back, talk to him. His daughter got her Learner’s Permit yesterday—careful on the roads.
- Open house at Rescue the 12th, come see Drew and company!
- Damon had a great family trip. It’s the last time they will get to go to that cottage and had great years there.
Speaker: Jim O’Reilly from Shelter Box
Jim joined us from Lyndonville, VT, where he owns a restaurant and inn near Burke mountain. He’s been there 34 years. He was a civil engineer before becoming an Inn Keeper. He was in the Peace Corps in Nepal before that and that is how he found out about Shelter Box.
Shelter Box (www.shelterbox.org) is a project that Rotary International is involved in and to which our Club donates ($1,000/year). Shelter Box helps people get their homes back up and running after a disaster. There are 85 million people in the world right now who have been displaced. Each box/kit is tailored for the needs in the environment. Each box holds supplies and weights 120-150 pounds. If there is a shelter that can be repaired, the box contains repair tools so that people can stay in their home and rebuild. If there is no standing shelter, the kit contains a tent for a family. There is a LuminAID solar light in each kit. Kits also contain mosquito nets if appropriate. They contain water filtration systems; this is critical because water supplied are often compromised in disasters.
Shelter Box is constantly working with partners to improve the tools and products in the kits to make them lighter and easier to use. They are committed to reaching outlying areas, not just urban or well-populated areas. They use all kinds of transport, including trucks, Sherpas, boats, mules, etc. Response Team members are all volunteers; there are over 200 volunteers working on deployments in the world right now.
Last year, Shelter Box USA had 18 deployments. There are also Ambassadors who go around and educate people about Shelter Box. They are all over the world, including in the USA. Right now, they are in 12 different countries. The Syrian crisis is different from others because it is long-term. This is the only crisis for which you can ear-mark donations at this time.
Rotary is the #1 Shelter Box partner. It was started by a Rotary Club in Cornwall in 2000 as a Millennium project. Aside from financial support, Rotary Clubs where there are deployments are involved with logistics and making local connections.
There are several ways to help. Our donation is important. The Hero Program is a three-year Club commitment ($1,000, $3,000 or $5,000 levels). That is something our Club could consider.
Q&A
- What is the cost of 1 box? $1000-1,500. The repair kits are about $100.
- There are some pre-packed boxes in distribution centers around the world packed for that region. But for each disaster, a team is deployed and determines needs that might mean the boxes get modified/tweaked.
- What is the scale of the Shelter Box operation? There were about 180,000 boxes deployed last year.
- Beyond Rotary, what are the major funding sources? Volunteers and Ambassadors pledge to raise $1-100,000/year. The latest annual report is on the website. The Crystal Springs Foundation donated over $500,000 last year.
- Right now, the biggest deployments are in Kenya and eastern Africa. There are about 4,000 boxes being deployed there for flooding.
- Are boxes re-used? They are re-purposed by whoever received them. Sometimes they are used as water carriers. People generally find a million different ways to use them.
- What else is in the box? There are blankets and comfort items, cooking utensils, lights, saws, ropes, hammers, tents, kids kits (with drawing materials, school supplies, etc.). They are not putting stoves in each box, instead they can be deployed by teams to groups.
- What is the life expectancy of the tent? They can last for years, but hopefully they are only needed for 6 months or less. In Syria, they have been there for years. They are passed on to multiple families as needed.
- How can I become a volunteer to be deployed? See the website (https://www.shelterbox.org/volunteer). Deployments are 18 days at a time. There is a training program. Volunteers fund their own travel.
Four-way test—of the things we think, say and do:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?