Robyn Braley greeted us all to the Zoom meeting. President Marlene Doherty opened the meeting.
The Boltman
David Williams provided us information on the Boltman. It all started in September, 1985, when our club formed a partnership with Lord Shaughnessy High School. Their principal was Jim Barnes who became a member of our club. Originally, we provided students with mentorship and advice on getting jobs, and the students helped us out with our bingo fundraiser. Another of our members, John Rymes, donated a car for the students to fix, with the proceeds going to the school.
Clarence Buckley designed the Boltman, and in June, 1993, the students started to produce them. When Lord Shaughnessy merged with a nearby school, Karl Herzog started production at the school he founded, Motive Action. Over 700 Boltmen were produced, ending in 2020 when Motive Action was closed due to corona virus and lack of provincial government funding.
From now on, we will provide a donation to Shelterbox in our speakers' names.
Announcements
Don Edie announced "Move for Polio", an annual fundraiser for polio eradication. If you would like to participate or sponsor club members who are, you can do so through a link on our website.
Gord Cox announced a move to reduce e-mails. Access to meetings, both in-person and on Zoom, can be obtained through the calendar on our website, as can all of our activities. Recordings of our meetings will also be posted there. Gord also mentioned that, now that the restrictions have been lifted, we can once again meet in-person at the Grey Eagle. These meetings will be hybrid, with members able to attend with Zoom. Gord took a poll of how many members would like to attend in person next week, and about 50% or 20 people expressed interest.
Guest Speaker: Kent Fraser, The ShelterBox story, including an update on operations through the pandemic.
| Steve Kuiack introduced our speaker, Kent Fraser. Kent has been club secretary, president, international service director, membership director and Rotary Foundation chair of Fish Creek Rotary Club. He also facilitated Marlene's strategic planning process. When not busy with Rotary, he works as a market researcher and consultant in agri-business. In 2010, he stumbled into what would become his Rotary passion, in a very Rotary way. He started asking a lot of questions about ShelterBox, until the Rotarian running the Canadian arm invited Kent to join the board of directors. Kent served as chair of the Canadian organization from 2015-2019 and continues to volunteer as a director and ambassador. |
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Kent started out recognising a number of our club members who have served on the board, including Mike French.
ShelterBox is dedicated to providing emergency disaster relief. It is dedicated to helping ensure no family is left without shelter after a natural disaster or conflict, by going where others can’t, or won’t go. It was originally started in 2000 by a Rotary club in Cornwall, England, and has grown to be a global organisation that has helped two million people.
ShelterBox Canada has been a part of the global ShelterBox network since 2010. ShelterBox Canada has an affiliate office located in Toronto, Ontario, that raises awareness and funds to help support families around the world who have been devastated by disaster or conflict. ShelterBox is a partner with Rotary International, although it does not receive funding from Rotary International.
It is estimated that there are 104 million people homeless due to conflicts and natural disasters. ShelterBox goes where people are most vulnerable where there is no other assistance available. In addition to their tent and equipment in a box with solar powered light, pot, pan, tools, water filtration and mosquito nets, they also provide shelter kits, some of which in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Each package is custom designed for unique situations and cultures. ShelterBox kits provide supplies for people who just need to repair their homes. Kent described a few anecdotes as examples of where they have been deployed.
Bryden Horwood was the chat monitor and relayed our questions to Kent. One box costs $1,200 delivered. ShelterBox kits vary in cost from around $300 per family. ShelterBox volunteers team up with locals to listen to their needs, allowing customization to local needs. There are 100+ volunteers. The only location with volunteers permanently deployed is the Philippines.
Kent also sent an email to President Marlene, which I have copied below, after the coming events table.
Marvin Pawlivsky thanked Kent for his presentation.
President Marlene ended the meeting with an announcement that we have a financial security breach. She also expressed her thanks to team 2 for their work on this meeting, and promised service pins to our speaker committee. She also noted that Steve Rickard is our new International Service Committee chair.
Q and A
Gord Cox: Does ShelterBox investigate new technologies (water filtration etc) and equipment that would be appropriate for the boxes?
A. YES. Our experts at ShelterBox headquarters in the UK are always assessing new gear. The water filter we currently use was chosen because of simplicity and reliability compared to what we had used before.
Q. Tazim Asaria: Where are these kits put together? How many do you prepare at a time? They’re region specific so how do you decide how many to prepare?
A. Aid is prepared in many ways.
The main materials are chosen to be appropriate to the most common disasters and regions. So, some boxes can be assembled in the UK (in the past) or in one of our warehouses near where they are likely to be needed. The same can be done with the standard ShelterKits. Those boxes and kits are then ready to go. That is especially helpful for the fast first wave of aid.
The majority of materials will be shipped to the UK or the same warehouses around the world, but not packed into boxes or kits.
Our volunteers assess the needs of the community and then recommend what is needed. For example, the first wave might be standard boxes and/or kits – because that is fast. Then the volunteers could request that the next shipment be ShelterKits (tarps etc), plus mosquito nets, water filters, water containers, blankets and solar lights.
How much we can do depends on donations. Donations surge when a big disaster is on the news here. However, that money arrives after we’ve already deployed! We will use up our existing stock for the current disaster and use the donations to get ready for the next one. That oversimplifies it, but I hope that explains how it works.
Q. Nketti Johnston-Taylor: With so much disaster out there, how do you determine which countries and specific areas to support? What are the criteria and or decision making process?
A. When natural disasters and conflicts occur, our ShelterBox operations team makes careful assessments to ensure that ShelterBox aid is right for the situation. We will consider the type of disaster and the level of damage, as well as the needs of the community and their ability to recover, before selecting the right type of support.
The criteria consider:
- Government response – Have they asked for assistance and will they give us permission?
- Number of families needing help – Do at least 200 families need our help?
- Type of aid needed – Is our aid appropriate?
- Length of time support is needed – Is help needed for a month or more?
- Speed of self-recovery – Can people recover without us?
- Local capacity – Will local organizations meet the need?
- ShelterBox resources – Can we do it?
