Tag archives: disaster relief
More than 200 do-gooders from all over America took part in a spectacular sunset and heartwarming stories at the ShelterBox USA Evening to Experience benefit on Thursday, September 7. Attendees at the UC investments campus, the former QAD campus, heard how ShelterBox is currently providing emergency shelter and vital humanitarian aid in some of the […]
On March 8, ShelterBox USA hosted an event at UC Investments property on Ortega Hill in Summerland with more than 80 attendees to celebrate International Women’s Day and recognize the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The international nonprofit organization, which provides emergency shelter and essential tools and supplies to vulnerable people affected […]
I’ve long thought the most important and interesting work being done in Santa Barbara County, by far, is taking place in the nonprofit realm. I cannot think of a stronger example than the critical work currently being done by ShelterBox, which annually helps provide emergency shelter and essential items to more than 400,000 displaced people […]
Once more into the breach, dear friends. Five years ago, our beloved community was targeted by a series of wildfires and mudslides that caused severe damage to our businesses and residents, including loss of life. And now we again find ourselves at the mercy of Mother Nature with rain and mud once more impacting our […]
Santa Barbara’s United Nations Association has awarded the local nonprofit ShelterBox USA, which has helped with more than 100 disasters in over 100 countries since 2000, its sixth annual Peace Prize. Current deployments include Ukraine, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Syria. Kerri Murray, president of ShelterBox, which was nominated for a Nobel Peace […]
On Monday, October 24, International United Nations Day, a huge crowd descended on Pascucci on State Street for the awarding of the 6th Annual United Nations Association (UNA) Santa Barbara Peace Prize. Created in 2017 by the United Nations of Santa Barbara, the Prize is awarded to individuals or organizations to recognize their work in […]
International locally-based charity ShelterBox raised around $250,000 from 175 guests at a Tacos and Tequila party at the Summerland estate of John McGovern, who also received this year’s Community Partnership Award from president Kerri Murray. The sunset soirée, an immersive experience of the charity’s lifesaving work, included interactive demonstrations of shelters and equipment, used in […]
Local residents were in for a treat on Saturday afternoon when a group of renowned musicians played a backyard benefit to raise awareness for ShelterBox, a Santa Barbara-based global disaster relief organization, that is providing much needed help to people displaced by the crisis in Ukraine. The audience picnicked on blankets and lawn chairs, relaxing […]
In a bittersweet ceremony, Montecito’s The Project for Resilient Communities (TPRC) on Sunday received a prestigious national award for the private-public project that installed protective ring nets in canyons where deadly torrents surged down in the 1/9 disaster. Three leaders of the Virginia-based ReadyCommunities Partnership, which spotlights and supports efforts across the nation demonstrating “resiliency […]
Remember the 2018 devastating debris flow that changed Montecito forever? Those of us who lived here at the time do. Like it happened yesterday, with all the pain and loss and destruction it brought. But for those who made Montecito their home post-debris flow (or PDF as I like to call it), the knowledge of […]
Direct Relief has been so efficient at serving as one of the country’s most effective humanitarian assistance organizations that it’s easy to overlook the scope and the scale of what the nonprofit achieves. Just last week alone, for example, Direct Relief airlifted a huge planeload of medical supplies and other equipment to Haiti after the […]
For a relatively large and well-established nonprofit organization in our community, United Way of Santa Barbara County over the last few years has demonstrated the ability to respond quickly to current circumstances — not so much as an about face or even a course correction, but more of an adapting to changing needs to meet […]
ShelterBox, the Santa Barbara-based nonprofit dedicated to disaster relief, is currently dealing with the aftermath of super typhoon Goni, which made landfall in the Philippines. Known locally as Rolly, the typhoon is the latest in a series of violent storms to rip through the country with 140-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rainfall. It became the most […]
Every minute twenty people are forcibly displaced, driven by conflict to flee their homes.” There is an organization called ShelterBox located both here and Florida which since 2000 has sought to help. John McGovern opened his Summerland home and gardens to the group to promote and make local folks aware of their work. Tequila and […]
ShelterBox, the Santa Barbara-based charity, has had its hands full of late with a whole slew of global disasters, most recently in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian. More than 250 guests turned out at the Summerland estate of John McGovern for a sunset fundraiser, which garnered around $250,000 for the 19-year-old nonprofit, which has responded […]
Popular Santa Barbara charity, the Unity Shoppe, hosted an appreciation lunch for more than 100 senior volunteers at La Casa Nichita, the historic Mission Canyon home of veteran supporter Barbara Tellefson. “Last year was a very trying time for us,” Barbara tells me. “Disaster relief cost us more than $300,000, which severely depleted our funds, […]
The Thomas Wildfire and the January 9 debris flow have presented the county with the most complex disaster recovery and preparedness scenarios in California history. The confluence of events leading to the twin disasters was unprecedented, the threat of a repeat disaster is still imminent, acceptable mitigation solutions are still amorphous, and their costs uncertain. […]
Going forward, Montecito home and business owners need to have continuing, affordable, comprehensive, insurance coverage. As a community, we need to speak with one voice in demanding that public officials ensure that such insurance remains in place. Here are three of the issues that will have to be addressed by lawmakers, insurance regulators, and insurance […]
There are four women responsible for the attractive, busy, and critical resource center known as the Recovery Free Store, dedicated to victims and first responders of the Thomas Fire and Montecito debris slide. They are Berna Keiler, Cathy Link, Heather Sage, and Susan St. John. The store, currently parked directly across from Vons in the […]
Santa Barbara resident Kerri Murray, president of ShelterBox USA, had lunch with Camilla, the duchess of Cornwall, at her London home, Clarence House, last week. It was the second time the tony twosome had met, given the wife of Prince Charles also visited the charity’s new British HQ and visitors center in Truro, Cornwall, last […]
