Any Rotarian who is not familiar with ShelterBox hasn’t been paying attention.

Luckily, members of the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club have paid attention in a big way. In the past decade, the club and its individual members have contributed more than $25,000 to support ShelterBox’s global emergency services to people hit by tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, revolutions, and other insurrections.

Well, no good deed goes unpunished. ShelterBox needs you now more than ever. 

Weather-related emergencies in Haiti and the Philippines and Africa, civil war casualties in Yemen, and now the horrors of the Russian invasion in Ukraine have been added to the seemingly endless stream of emergencies worldwide. What to do? You supply the funds, ShelterBox supplies the first-strike aid — getting there long before governmental entities are able to grind through the red tape to do so.

SRC already had donated hundreds of dollars in the 2021-22 Rotary Year to ShelterBox, and will continue to do so through the Clynk recycling program we are involved in as a steady stream of modest but regular support. However, we now are asking for your individual generous donations to ramp up support during this particularly trying period.

Each ShelterBox — as described by District 7190 ShelterBox liaison Larry Jones at a recent SRC meeting and as found on our club website — costs $1,000, and is tailored to the geographic and cultural needs of the hard-hit areas with a tent habitat, tools, solar lights, water purification items, etc. 
We’re hoping to buy several boxes in addition to those we already have paid for. And, the process is simple — and tax deductible.

All you have to do to make your deductible donation is:

• Write a check in any amount — from $5 to the full $1,000, and anything large or small in between — made payable to “ShelterBox USA.”

• In the memo line, enter “Southern Rensselaer County Club #4919.”

• Give the check to Bill Dowd, SRC’s ShelterBox liaison, who will collate SRC funds and get your contribution to the right people.

You eventually will be informed where your donation went as part of ShelterBox’s global efforts. In any case, your contribution is deductible.

So, we thank you for your consideration, and hope you will respond in a timely fashion since, as we tell incoming Rotarians, “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”