The Mountain Empire Rotary Club is teaming up with the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Rotary in Illinois in the Haitian Earthquake Relief Initiative to provide shelter boxes to the victims of this disaster. The local Patagonia-Sonoita-Elgin chapter voted unanimously to send $6,000 from its foundation fund. An additional $1,000 was also donated to the foundation in memory of Mickey MacArthur along with contributions from Bob Barnhill, Wally and Sheila Dagucon, Jerry and Patty Bianchi, Charlie Kentnor and Keith Mundy.

Each shelter box costs $1,000 and contains a 10 person tent; vinyl insulated sleeping mats and lightweight thermal blanket, multi-fueled cook stove, eating utensils, enamel plates and cups, water purification tablets and other survival equipment. The shelter box organization is working with Rotary International and the Haitian Rotary clubs to distribute relief supplies to the country.

For more information, you can go to http://www.shelterbox.org/news.php?id=232, or send checks to Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Rotary Foundation, Haitian Earthquake Relief Initiative, P.O. Box 168, Lake Forest, Ill 60045, or contact Leslie Kramer at (520) 455-0055.