Dick Drew
D
ick Drew is best known as the creator, host and script writer of the daily radio series called The Canadian Achievers. The show broadcast from 1985 until 1999 and was Canada’s most successful syndicated radio program. On the program, Drew told the true stories of ordinary Canadians who worked hard to become extraordinary people. Remarkable stories just like Drew’s own. He credits his wife Aline for his discovery of ShelterBoxes back in 2003. At a rotary convention in Brisbane, Australia, Aline spotted the boxes from among 300 to 400 displays and told Dick to take a look at them. Dick walked over and was immediately captivated by the concept. “As soon as you saw it, you said, “Wow, what an idea.” A ShelterBox is a durable, lightweight, plastic container about the size of a large suitcase that holds emergency supplies and tools for victims of disasters. Drew obtained four of the boxes from ShelterBox UK in England and
started displaying them at Rotary club conventions across B.C. and the western United States. “You just went where there was
Rotarian Dick Drew set up the ShelterBox program, a shelter, a home that can help in any emergency. going to be a gathering of Rotarians,” says Drew. “It had to be put in front of them. They had to see it.” The first time Drew put a box on display, in 2005, in Duncan, it caught everybody’s imagination, he says. “It had that effect when we set a bunch of them up in downtown Maple Ridge. People came around and just said ‘Wow!’” In 2008, four shelter boxes were put on display in Memorial Peace Park and over the course of a weekend, Maple Ridge rotarians slept in shifts in the tents to bring awareness to the cause and collect donations. Each box is 57 cm wide by 84 cm long by 60 cm deep and has a capacity of 185 litres. When it is fully packed
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with equipment the box weighs in between 50 to 60 kilograms. The box itself, once empty can be used for food or water storage or a cot for a new born baby. The main item that can be found in every ShelterBox is a disaster relief tent that can withstand extreme temperatures, heavy rain and high winds and has privacy partitions that can be divided as occupants see fit. In addition, boxes can contain thermal blankets and insulated ground sheets for areas that get cold at night, mosquito nets for areas where there is malaria and water purification supplies. A basic tool kit is supplied containing a hammer, axe, saw, trenching shovel, hoe head, pliers and wire cutters. A wood-burning or multi-fuel stove is provided along with pans, utensils, bowls, mugs and water storage containers. The multi-fuel stove can burn anything from diesel to old paint. Lastly, a children’s pack is supplied containing drawing books, crayons, pens and a compass set for those a little older. ShelterBox was founded in England
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by a man named Tom Henderson in April 2000. He launched the project at his Rotary club in Cornwall where it was adopted as the group’s millennium project and quickly became the largest Rotary project in the world. All boxes are packed in Cornwall at ShelterBox headquarters where a variety of equipment is kept in stock in order to adjust the contents of each box according to the region it is being sent to and the urgent needs of the community. Currently, there are more than
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12 | Our Community. Our People. | Supplement to the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows News | August 2011