See below as our club focuses on raising funds to puchases Shelter boxes for Haiti. The need is great as the rainy season quickly approaches. 

In addition we have our monthly volunteer day at St. Vincents Kitchen, as well as our weekly meeting on Wednesday mornings.

Six historic homes in Whitby and Brooklin have been sketched for this fundraising project. The cards have been printed on a high quality parchment and are blank inside. They are suitible to send for any occasion or are ready for framing. Each set includes 12 greeting cards (two of each design) complete with matching envelopes at a price of $20.

On The Ground in Haiti

As follows is an eyewitness account of a couple of Canadians in Haiti:

Cheryl is a Chiropractor and owner operator of a busy multi disciplinary natural health clinic in Oakville Ontario .  Her particular focus has been women's health and children.

Laurens is an O.P.P. officer working out of the Burlington Ontario detachment.
The two became interested in mission work via interaction with members of their church group and participated in several one to two week trips to Haiti to get involved.

They have since put their Canadian life on hold and have been in Haiti for the past 18 plus months.  Cheryl is the coordinator and director of the medical clinic at their facility and Laurens is the construction supervisor.  They are building a facility to provide education, health care and a safety to orphans and families in their area.  Read their account of the earth quake...keep a tissue nearby.

Message from Haiti 

Rotarians in Haiti

Rotary's Shelterbox

Our mission is to deliver immediate relief to victims of natural and other disasters anywhere around the world.
Disasters to which we have responded include earthquakes, hurricanes, wars, floods, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and typhoons.
We achieve our mission by providing rugged 10-person tents to be used as emergency accommodation and other survival essentials as required.
As of January 2007, ShelterBox has sent aid to 31 different countries, providing shelter for approaching 500,000 people.

ShelterBox tents provide shelter for the most vulnerable in Haiti

Families with newborn babies and pregnant women have been given emergency shelter by the ShelterBox Response Team operating in Haiti.

The Response Team have set up a ShelterBox camp for up to 1,000 people on the Henfrasa sports field in Delmas, Port au Prince, Haiti, providing emergency shelter for the most in need and the most vulnerable.

ShelterBox Response Team member and General Manager Lasse Petersen said: ‘We agreed with the local community that the initial tent allocation would be for families with pregnant women and families with newborns.

‘We’re prioritising women and children, providing disaster relief tents, blankets, water containers, children’s packs and kitchenware, basically enough to set up families who have lost everything.

‘The Dutch marines have been very helpful for us in providing storage at Port au Prince airport as well as providing security to our team during the distribution of aid. There are hundreds of thousands of people left homeless but this is the first of our deliveries with many thousands more to come.’

http://www.shelterbox.ca/

Message from Rotary District:

Dear Rotarian,
I am pleased to advise you, on behalf of the board of The Rotary Foundation (Canada) that through February 12th, Canadians may make a tax-deductible donation to The Rotary Foundation (Canada) designated to help with earthquake recovery projects in Haiti. These restricted contributions will be used for Rotary Foundation projects in Haiti.
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) will make a matching contribution to the government’s Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund for all donations collected by charities through February 12th. CIDA will then accept grant proposals from charities and use this new fund to support projects, such as Rotary’s, that help meet the many critical needs of the Haitian people.
Contributions are now being accepted on TRF (Canada)’s website. While tax-receipts will be issued, no Paul Harris Fellow recognition will be provided. DDF (District Designated Funds) cannot be accepted due to government restrictions. Donations received after February 12th will be deposited into Rotary Foundation’s World Fund.

The easy way to contribute is on the secure donation page at www.TRFCanada.org.

Cheques may be sent to:

   The Rotary Foundation (Canada) - Box B9322
   P.O. Box 9100
   Postal Station F
   Toronto, ON M4Y 3A5

Donations must be received by February 12, 2010 to be eligible for the Government of Canada match. Contribute today to help with Haiti’s recovery atwww.TRFCanada.org !

February 10th Update:  

If you need to know what we are doing in Haiti - click on this.

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,64921944001_1960407,00.html

Totally tells you what we are all about.  While the matching deadline is this Friday Feb 12, our efforts must continue and the fundraising will go on.

We have never had such enormous response as this.  We in Canada will be at 3,000 boxes by next week and still support is coming in.  This will mean more boxes into Haiti from Canada.

However after the 12th we cannot guarantee that a donation will indeed end up in Haiti.  We will ship to them as long as aid is available and needed but there are other disasters happening and reserves to be rebuild.  Rest assured that the donations will still  be utilized to save lives and assist in disaster relief. 

We just moved 200 boxes from our prepositioned container into Egypt yesterday due to disasterous floods that wiped out an area.  None of these were Canadian so all of our donations are still going to Haiti.

Keep up the great work and thanks to all of you for above and beyond service to your fellow human beings.   I think that's just the Rotary way isn't it.