The following participating Clubs are: Champaign West, Lincoln, Bloomington-Normal Sunrise (2 baskets), Sullivan, Eureka, Danville Sunrise, Robinson, Danville Downtown, Newton, Bloomington-Normal Daybreak, Pontiac, Tuscola, Gilman, Bloomington-Normal Sunset, Gibson City, Champaign, Bloomington, Arcola, Charleston, Rantoul, Nokomis, Litchfield, Effingham Noon, Vandalia, Champaign-Urbana Sunrise, Clinton, Illini After Five, Normal, and Jon and Cathy Rector.
I have been told that twenty-eight clubs and one couple, planned, prepared and provided thirty Beautiful Baskets for our enjoyment and bidding over the two days of the District Conference this year! More than half of all District Clubs participated, which is substantially more than in recent years. Our District goal is to have 100% participation by every Club in our District within five years.
Not only was club participation excellent, but so was the money that was raised during the two-day individual Silent Auction of the Baskets. The average Basket winning Bid was over $100 and the total amount raised for ShelterBox USA was $3,105.
Other Rotary-related groups also raised funds for ShelterBox. University of Illinois Rotaractors, under the leadership of Suzanna Storms, erected a ShelterBox tent on the U Of I Quad and raised $1,000, during two rainy April days. They began setting up their tent around 10 am on April 10th. Four somewhat wet members survived the wind and rain that night sleeping in the tent. Unfortunately, they woke up to more cold and rain, but continued to extoll their ShelterBox story to their Illini counterparts until 4 pm on April 11th.
Our District’s Inbound and Outbound students were also introduced to ShelterBox by their District mentors. Many of them hung out at the ShelterBox USA tent and exhibit during the District Conference and had displays of the own in the House of Friendship. The youth of our District and the young global visitors to our District, were gently urged by their mentor, Karl Ludwig Konrad, to try themselves to raise funds to support the Global ShelterBox mission. They aggressively accepted their challenge, and by the time the dust had settled, they had raised almost $2,300 themselves. If you are doing the math, more than $6,400 has been raised by events related to our District in about two weeks in April, 2013.
YES, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD AND IN THE LIVES OF OUR YOUTH AT THE SAME TIME! I am proud to be a Rotarian in District 6490, and I thank my District Rotarians for your spirit, kindness, leadership and yes, love!
Yours in Rotary and ShelterBox Service,
Gary L. Olsen, AIA
Chair, D. 6490 ShelterBox USA Committee
