Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Weekly Elixir - October 22, 2007


U.S. ShelterBox response team delivers landmark aid
By Janice Chambers
Rotary International News

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What is a Shelterbox?


Shelterbox started as a small project by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, England, in 2001, but it took off quickly. To date, it has raised ₤15 million and delivered aid in 33 countries.

Recently, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles’s wife, Camilla, agreed to serve as president of ShelterBox. She is believed to be the first Royal Patron of a Rotary club project in the United Kingdom.

The ShelterBox project is designed to assist people who suffer through natural disasters.

Each ShelterBox costs about US$1,000 and is intended to help a family of 10 survive for six months. It contains custom supplies that typically include a large tent, blankets, water purification and cooking equipment, basic tools, and a multi-fuel stove. Rotary clubs provide more than half the funding, and private donors contribute the rest.

The Shelterbox that marked 500,000 people helped by the program was delivered to Jagadeo Argairiya, who has a family of 10, including five young children.

On her first trip delivering disaster relief for ShelterBox, Trannie Lacquey encountered Maoist guerillas, crossed swollen rivers on foot, and hiked miles in a remote, tension-filled corner of Nepal.

But the toughest challenge, says the grandmother of five, was clearing customs at the airport for 410 ShelterBox relief kits, which would help hundreds of families trapped by the monsoon floods that swept Nepal in August. It took 10 days.




“It was tedious and very frustrating. We knew people were waiting,” she says.
Fortunately, extensive training at a ShelterBox Response Team training camp in Cornwall, England, paid off, she says. Lacquey and her husband, John, members of the Rotary Club of Branford, Florida, USA, and Gary Boe, a member of the Rotary Club of Lewis River, Washington, USA, were the first U.S. ShelterBox Response Team members sent on a disaster relief mission.

They also made history, as they delivered the ShelterBox that marked 500,000 disaster victims aided by the Rotarian-sponsored nonprofit.

The effort also depends on energetic volunteers like the Lacqueys, who arrived home 1 September after three weeks in Nepal and are now repacking for a weekend in Blackwater River State Park in Florida, where they’ll help train more response team recruits.

They’ll also tell stories from their recent trip. “The rice paddies were still flooded,” John Trannie recalls. “People lost everything. They were living under tarps in the rain. The living conditions were just horrible.” But through it all, he says, “People would help their neighbors. It was a very humbling experience for us.”

Recently, ShelterBox enjoyed another first. It received its first Matching Grant from The Rotary Foundation, allowing 24 boxes to be delivered to northern Ethiopia in October, providing desperately needed shelter for Sudanese refugees. The grant was funded by the Rotary clubs of Beaverton, Oregon, USA, and Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

It is part of a massive effort by ShelterBox, called A Million in Africa, which intends to provide shelter for one million of Africa’s eight million refugees.

Read more about the ShelterBox Response Team training camp in England in the October issue of The Rotarian.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Weekly Elixir - October 15, 2007


Wow! What a change!

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Have you had a chance to look at the new and updated Rotary International website? (www.rotary.org)

First of all, you can check out Rotary Basics.

Read what the Rotary website has to say about Rotary Basics:

The 2007-08 edition of Rotary Basics, the annual guide to all things Rotary, is here! The eight-page publication has been updated with new facts and figures for the Rotary year, and now boasts a more user-friendly look.

In addition to providing a crash course in Rotary history and demystifying RI terms, Rotary Basics is a thorough introduction to RI and Rotary Foundation programs and membership benefits and responsibilities.

Released each August to coincide with Membership and Extension Month, Rotary Basics helps clubs educate new and longtime Rotarians alike. It’s also an excellent recruiting tool.

Find it in the August issue of The Rotarian or download it from:

http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en-pdf/595en.pdf

“The more I learn about Rotary, the more I love Rotary.” (Michael P. Slevnik, USA)


I feel the same way, and you can too. It’s all about education!

Please do have a look at the new updated Rotary International website and Share Rotary!

Weekly Elixir - October 8, 2007


October is Rotary Vocational Service month

…ideas from Rotary International

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A good place to start Vocational Service is by increasing the club’s awareness of the scope of Vocational Service. What are all the occupations in our Rotary Club and in the community? What vocational talents can we contribute to the problems and needs of society? How can we encourage those around us to strive toward integrity, character, and high ethical standards?

The Vocational Service Committee should focus on developing the vocational awareness of the club and its members. Club members should be challenged to improve their leadership skills and be conscious of the ethical nature of their daily lives.

Classification talks. Classification talks are essential for promoting vocational awareness in the club. The presentations give members the chance to learn the inner workings of jobs other than their own, including the various problems that arise and the solutions used to address them. Classification talks can also be of particular value to the Career Development sub-committee. Information gleaned during the talks can help the sub-committee in its search for specific club members who can counsel young people in career-guidance programs.

Tours of members’ businesses. A great idea for a different kind of Rotary meeting! The name “Rotary” originated with the practice of rotating meeting sites among members’ places of business, and that practice remains an excellent way for Rotarians to share their vocations with the club. In fact, those members who find public speaking difficult may much prefer conducting a tour of their workplace rather than giving a classification talk.

If the size of the workplace and the size of your club permit, schedule an occasional meeting in a member’s place of employment. And don’t forget to include young people on the tour. A difficult career choice can be made easier begetting firsthand knowledge about particular occupations.

4-way Test. And don’t forget the 4-Way Test, the best feature of Rotary Vocational involvement!

The more each member and each club can do to promote vocational awareness among members and among the community, the more successful will be the Rotary purpose. Think about sharing Rotary this month!