Shelter Box

The purpose of Shelter Box USA, Inc. is to provide victims of disaster with shelter, by supporting the efforts of the Shelter Box Trust. The function of Shelter Box USA, Inc. is, within the USA, to raise the money that provides the shelter for disaster victims. Shelter Box is a grassroots Rotary club project which has rapidly grown to an international level.

The Shelter Box project was conceived and developed by Tom Henderson, a member of the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, Cornwall District, in Great Britain as their Millennium Service Project. Struck with the urgent world-wide need for a self-contained emergency shelter unit when disaster occurs, Tom designed a tent, researched suppliers and, through trial and error, developed the Shelter Box. The international relief agency Feed the Children, has called Tom's Shelter Box the best disaster relief tool they have seen in their 20 years of experience. Working primarily through UK Rotary clubs, Tom and his Rotary club has succeeded in exposing the Shelter Box project to over 25 million Brits and, as a result, distributed provided shelter for approximately one-third of a million people in the last six years.

In March, 2002, Tom approached the newly formed Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch (near Sarasota, FL) to become the primary Rotary administrator for the Shelter Box program in the United State, known as Shelter Box USA. This commitment involves promoting Shelter Box not only through the established US Rotary club network but to other community groups, corporate groups and individuals, as well. ShelterBox USA became a non profit 501(C)(3) organization, with a Board of Directors, in 2005.

As a result of exhibiting at the 2003 Rotary International Conference, Shelter Box USA was responsible for initiating two other national affiliates: Shelter Box Down Under (in Australia) and Shelter-Box Canada. Shelter Box Japan is the newest global partner.

Steve Daly, of the North Andover Rotary Club, will be our guest speaker this week. He is a Field Rep for Shelter Box.

President's Message

Dear Friends,

Thank you, Steve Goddu, for another great and informative program!

Although Rotary is just over a century old, it has expanded to virtually the four corners of the earth. It now boasts 33,000 clubs worldwide with 1.2 million Rotarians meeting weekly. We, the Rotary Club of Haverhill, recently received a letter from another Rotarian half way around the world. Here is the content:

"Dear Sirs,
I am writing to you from the northernmost reaches of Thailand. Our Rotary Clun of Mae Chan recently hosted approximately 500 Rotarians from the Chiang Rai Province. Though I am a Paul Harris fellow, compliments of my late father, I am a relatively recent active member. Though I am sure I have heard "It¹s a Small World" at a similar function in Bangkok last year, I was unaware of its place in Rotary. I asked for someone to let me know if the song was international in scope. The answer came from my daughter's mother-in-law in New Hampshire. She did some research, sent me the positive response and followed that up with a lengthy print-out concerning your club.

Your club appears to be quite involved in both educational and health issues just as our Mae Chan club. Unlike you, we are fairly small but, like you, very active and able to accomplish a great deal. We work in conjunction with a Rotarian from Florida to build or refurbish buildings at needy schools and orphanages in out area. Through a joint project with two Alaskan clubs and twelve from Taiwan, we were able to purchase and place 104 small laptop computers in our local boarding school for indigent hill tribe students. Several of the students from my school and another in the area have received started scholarships and are attending various universities. We have also assisted in dental and medical clinics in remote areas.

I would like to invite members of your club to visit our beautiful country and perhaps discover why so many Americans are pleased to call it home. We have several members who speak English well and several others who are adequate but reluctant speakers. You will find the Thais to be a warm and welcoming people. You will never feel lost.

Sincerely,

Carol Acosta
340 Moo 2,
Janjawawittayakhom School, Mae Chan,
Chiang Rai, Thailand, 57270"

When I read this letter, I felt two remarkable things. First, I realized that Rotarians feel a certain bond to one another, even if one has never personally met the other. Second, I felt that, as Rotarians, we all share the same sense of responsibility as citizens of this planet which we call Earth ­ that is "Service Above Self," to help make our world a better place for all.

You should feel free to write back to Carol in Thailand. Her words should inspire each of us in the sacred work of Rotary.

Rotarily Yours,

Ira

Duck Race Info

It was great to finally receive and start handing out adoption papers this week! For those who did not get them last week, we will have them for you this week.

If you haven't already, please use the link in last week's Nairator that we provided to put web banners on your company / organization / agency web site home page to help publicize the duck race. http://www.haverhillrotary.com/banners/. Banners will help to direct potential donors to adopt ducks online at AdoptaDuckToday.com.

In addition to using the hard copy adoption papers, here is the text of an email you can forward to all of your email contacts. Please use it! Fellow Rotarian Phil Brown provided the basics and says that it has been working very well for him.

Hi John (personalizing helps if you take the time),

The Haverhill Rotary Club is having a Rubber Duck Regatta on the Merrimack River on Sept 12. Rubber ducks will race from the Basiliere Bridge to the Crescent Yacht Club. First prize is a Nissan Versa donated by Rockingham Toyota-Nissan-Honda. There will also be a chance to win a $1 million prize.

It costs $5 to adopt a duck. You can also purchase the following:

A "Quack Pack" of 5 for $25
A "Quackers Dozen" 12 for $50
A "Flock" of 25 Ducks for $100
This is the most "FUN" fundraiser I've seen in a long time. Kids will love cheering their ducks onto victory from the banks of the Merrimack. This is the Rotary's primary fundraiser for the year and there are many charities in the Greater Haverhill area that count on our support, especially in this difficult economy.

Please fill out the attached adoption papers if you are interested in adopting a duck and mail it back to me, or for more information and to adopt online you can go to www.AdoptADuckToday.com The "adopt a duck" button is at the top of the Adopt A Duck web page. If you do adopt online, please make sure to credit me: when asked Team Name, choose "Haverhill Rotary Club" and when asked Team Member, please choose (Rotarian, please insert your name)

Thanks,

(Rotarian: insert your name and address if you want people to mail the info back to you so you can personally turn them in)

Finally here are important dates coming up related to the duck race. We are looking for volunteers for:

Sat and Sunday, Aug 22nd and 23rd from 10 AM - 5 PM: power boat races on the Merrimack. We want to have a table of 3-4 Rotarians to sell adoptions. Can you offer a few hours either or both days?

Either Aug 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, or 31 (the games start at 7:05 pm each night except the double header on the 29th which starts at 5:05 pm and the game on the 30th starts at 6:35): the NH Fisher Cats Stadium in Manchester, NH. We are looking for a team of 3-4 to operate a table to sell adoptions one of these evenings. The Fisher Cats have pledged to show our HCTV duck race ad before the game starts on their "big Board" (and we may be able to get them to insert another shorter one during the game). So it would be most important to be able to get there early enough to set up before the game.

Thursday, Sept. 3rd from our lunch meeting into the evening: rubber duck tagging party at Tops Electronics in Ward Hill. Rotarian Volunteers needed to help supervise the youths in tagging the ducks.

Sat., Sept. 12th - RACE DAY. Please reserve this date! We need all hands on deck to help make the race a great success!

Any day - do you have an excellent site to park the Nissan 2009 VERSA and its "Win This Car!" banner for good drive-by exposure? Call 978-373-1971 x223 or email me

John Cuneo

Community Meals

Haverhill Rotary will be serving Community meals at the Haverhill Citizen's Center on Monday August 17th. Please set aside some time to assist in serving meals. Those who are bringing desserts should have them there no later than 4:30 PM. The meal begins at 5:00 PM.

Last Week's Speaker
John Warner Warner Babcock Institute

John, President and Chief Technology Officer of the WarnerBabcock Institute for Green Chemistry was our guest speaker last week. He gave each of us some insight on how we can improve our environment by designing "Green" from the start. One startling fact he mentioned is that every year many PHD's are awarded in chemistry and none of the candidates are required to complete even one course on toxicology! John has developed a nonprofit organization called Beyond Benign that is "focused on creating a workforce and public that is well educated in green chemistry in order to create safer materials for a thriving society." Programs are available for grades K-12, the community at large and for the workforce.

For further information John can be reached at john.warner@warnerbabcock.com.

The Circus Advance Man

My father-in-law was Albert W. Glynn of Haverhill, Massachusetts. He was the Mayor of Haverhill from 1939 until 1950. He told of many interesting experiences that he had during his time at City Hall.

It seems that just before he had become the Mayor, a lady from Haverhill had been sent to Danvers State Hospital. She blamed the previous Mayor and she talked incessantly about escaping from the hospital and returning to Haverhill and killing the Mayor. She did escape and the Danvers authorities notified the police in Haverhill and told them that the life of the Mayor might be in danger. The Haverhill Police Chief went to the Mayor's office and told my father-in-law of the woman's threat. He told him that he was going to post a police officer outside of the Mayor's office until the danger was resolved.

Albert told the Chief that he would have none of that. He didn't want the citizens to have to pass by an armed policeman to go into the Mayor's office. "Well then" the Chief said, "You are going to have to carry a gun until this danger has passed." So the Mayor agreed to carry a concealed revolver.

Many days passed and one day a circus advance man came to town and tried to get a permit for the circus to come to Haverhill. Albert had previously told the licensing bureau that he didn't want them to issue any circus permits, so they told this to the circus man and sent him to see the Mayor. The Police Chief had equipped the Mayor with a shoulder holster and revolver. Many days had passed since he was so equipped and Albert had forgotten about the gun. The circus man was insistent and obnoxious and finally the Mayor moved in his chair and the holster and gun became exposed. The circus man saw the gun, jumped up and left the office and said to a person in the City Hall corridor that he had never been in such a crazy town where the Mayor packed a gun.