Gala will fund shelter for displaced people around world
A night out can ensure other families will have a night out of the elements.
People buying tickets to the Shine for ShelterBox dinner gala on Friday, Nov. 4, at the Stables at Connoquenessing, 856 Evans City Road, Connoquenessing Township, will be contributing to ShelterBox, a disaster relief organization that delivers shelters and other essential aid families need to survive and begin rebuilding their lives after a disaster.
Local ShelterBox Ambassdors Melanie and Dave Sturrock of Evans City said they became involved with the organization through the late Tom and Marie Grant, Zelienople Rotary Club members and ShelterBox ambassadors themselves.
The Sturrocks are members of the Rich-Mar Rotary Satellite Club of Gibsonia.
Dave Sturrock said, “The Rotary Clubs are a disaster relief partner of ShelterBox.”
Sturrock said ShelterBox is an international disaster relief organization that provides relief following disasters worldwide such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and wars.
“The focus is on shelter,” said Sturrock. “ Other organizations focus on medical needs, food. There’s not much focus on shelter.”
“The green box we provide is the standard offering,” he said. “It has a family-sized year-round tent that’s insulated.The box also contains pots and pans, water carriers, water purification kits, solar lights, kids’ education kits, lots of things to help make the family whole again and get them through the worst times.”
The Sturrocks said ShelterBox also has a shelter kit which is a large bag full of tarps and heavy-duty tools for people who don’t need replacement housing but do need tools and tarps to repair their damaged housing.
Melanie Sturrock said, "To keep a family safe, you need a shelter. This gives people that safety; children have a place to call home while they are at a refugee camp.“
ShelterBox, Dave Sturrock said, was started 20 years ago by the Rotary Club and then split off into its own organization.
Melanie Sturrock said, “Their vision is to let no families be without a home during the hardest time in their lives.
“We are family oriented. That was important to us. It means we can keep families together in a crisis and give them hope and hope for the future that they can rebuild their lives and get back to the new normal whatever that may be,” she said. “We can’t let them leave their community to go to a refugee camp without a shelter.”
The Sturrocks said ShelterBox boxes and kits are more needed than ever this year with the hot spots in Ukraine, Pakistan and Yemen.
Dave Sturrock said, “ShelterBox will do an analysis of what they need in an area. Ukraine really needed mattresses, so we sent thousands of mattresses. We will customize our aid to what is needed in that area. ”
Dave Sturrock said ShelterBox doesn’t have a big presence in the United States because the Federal Emergency Management Agency takes care of people displaced by natural disasters in this country.
He said ShelterBox did provide small tents to people staying in the New Orleans Superdome in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The tents provided privacy to people evacuated into the domed stadium.
Melanie Sturrock said the fundraising gala starts at 6 p.m. with a social hour followed by a dinner, speakers from the national ShelterBox organization, basket raffles, a silent auction, “a cake auction which was a lot of fun last year” and entertainment.
Tickets are available by going to shelterboxshine.square.site.
Melanie Sturrock said, “it is open to the community. If someone is interested, go online and get tickets, and we are also taking walk-ins as space is available.”
Dave Sturrock said the event raised $20,000 last year, and they are hoping to do so again this year.
