Shelter Box and Tanadoona
Our meeting on May 7th was a presentation by Greg Krauska from the Chanhassen Club. He spoke about ShelterBox, a 12 year old Rotary program.
ShelterBox was started by the Rotary Club in Cornwall, England in April, 2000, and it has now become the largest club project in the world, with active units across the globe. The concept is to provide items to residents in disaster areas other than food and medicine which are provided by other agencies. The contents of the boxes vary by the area and type of disaster, and a typical box will include a large tent, stove for cooking and heating, blankets dishes and utensils, coloring books and crayons for the kids,. and basic hand tools.
With 28 million displaced persons in the world from political issues, the demand for help is there. Add to this the natural disasters (hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes), and ShelterBox sent out 22,000 boxes worldwide in 2005.