WHY SEND A SHELTERBOX TO HAITI?

Rotarians are quick to respond to disasters, within 24 hours of the earthquake in Haiti the officers of the Elizabethtown Rotary Club were in discussion as to how to be the most effective from such a distance. The decision was unanimous. "Without a doubt, let's send a ShelterBox...no, let's send TWO!"

So, what's in a ShelterBox?

Look here: SHELTERBOXUSA
And watch this video on CNN.

And this video about the creator of ShelterBox.

And what is ShelterBox's relationship to Rotary, besides bearing

its emblem on the top and side of every box created?

Read this story, also on CNN.

And why is ShelterBox so special?

This report of quick relief action in Haiti through Rotary's partnership with ShelterBox, was excerpted from ROTARY INTERNATIONAL:

A ShelterBox response team of two U.S. Rotarians and one from the United Kingdom has already mobilized and delivered 1,700 containers of supplies to the affected areas. Another 1,600 will be dispatched from the U.K. to Port-au-Prince. Also, more than 100 Aquaboxes are being delivered to Haiti to provide safe water.

Claude Surena, a member of the Rotary Club of Petion-Ville and president of the Haitian Medical Asscociation, is sheltering more than 100 people in his damaged home in Port-au-Prince. He is also leading the efforts of the 17 Haitian Rotary clubs to ensure that the ShelterBox containers will be deployed effectively to the thousands left homeless.

CNN is following the path of a ShelterBox from its origin point in England until it arrives at a family or facility in Haiti

There are other ways to help provide for long-term relief through Rotary. One is through the Foundation by contributing to a donor advised fund. You can read more about that here to see if it is right for you:

HAITI RELIEF: DONOR ADVISED FUND

It is impossible to look at the television each night and not want to be there, to reach out, to lend a helping hand, to comfort the injured and console the grieving people of this small, greatly impoverished, but strong-hearted nation. So give of yourself whatever you can.. both in dollars and in prayers.

Austria is January's Featured Country

In the International spirit that is Rotary, each Etown Rotary board meeting this year will feature a different country by way of a wine tasting. According to the French proverb, " In water one sees one's own face; But in wine one beholds the heart of another." Our meeting on Tuesday will highlight Austria.

Rotary has been established for a great many years in Austria. Austria traditionally was the border between East and West. It was therefore not unexpected that after the collapse of Communism, Austria should play a major role in establishing, encouraging, and support for Rotary which was establishing itself in the countries adjacent to it or in close proximity to it.

Both District 1910 & 1920 are heavily involved in Rotary in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Croatia.

Our January tasting will be Wolfgang Gru-Vee (Gruner Veltliner) . Vinted at Wolfgang's award-winning wine estates on the shores of the Neusiedlersee in the heart of Austria's Burgenland province, Vienna Gruner-Veltliner (or "Gru-Vee") Wine is a perfect example of Austria's best-loved white wine varietal. Neither sweet nor exceedingly dry, Gruner Veltliner wines are by far Austria's most popular whites; as a result, nearly all of the grape's annual yield is consumed domestically in Austria. The shoreline of middle Europe's only steppe lake provides an ideal climate for Wolfgang's cultivation of these powerful wines.

Vienna is made with only the finest hand-selected grapes from a single Holle ("warm weather") vineyard. The wine is aged for six months in new oak barrels to achieve the famous taste upon which Wolfgang has built its reputation.