Page 64 - May-June-July Life In Naples

by Mimi C. Gregory GIMME
Vice-President, Programs
Naples Council on World Affairs SHELTER

Hardly would those words, reminiscent of the witness to the tragedy
famous hit by the Rolling Stones, evoke the
images of countless refugees under ordinary of this migration.
circumstances; but these are surely not ordinary times.
Partnering with Seacrest
Shelter: so elusive for so many of these refugees,
so makeshift, so fragile, so absent, and for most who Country Day School,
have left their shelter, their homes behind… what
will become their shelter in the times ahead? we discovered that the

L TO R: MIMI GREGORY, BOB ERBSTEIN, students were anxious
EARL ANDERSON AND LAURA KERCKHOFF
to join us in our efforts
The Naples Council on World Affairs, the third
largest Council in the national network of World to increase awareness of
Affairs Councils, was founded here in 1981.To this
day it continues the mandate of educating, inspiring how to provide shelter!
and engaging Americans in international affairs, and
the critical global issues of our times. We were fortunate to

Of the ten annual lectures the Council offers its participate in a webinar
members, we chose “Migration” and the plight of
these 11.5 million displaced, as one of our topics from Cornwall, England,
for this year’s lecture series. Watching these throngs
of mankind, burdened with the few remaining with site coordinator for THE PRESIDENT, KERRI MURRAY, IS FEATURED WITH AN ACTUAL SHELTER
belongings they could carry, crossing borders on Shelter Box distribution, BOX AND SURROUNDED BY THE KIDS AT MODEL UNITED NATIONS.
foot, risking their lives at sea, we searched for a small Sam Hewitt. The entire
difference that we could make in this humanitarian
crisis: and it arrived in the form of “Shelter Box.” Upper School at Seacrest,

Think of a larger, green, recycle bin: it weighs 120 along with Board members of the Council, learned how the process of response to
pounds, and inside it lives shelter for up to 10 people:
a tent that can withstand winds of 100 mph, the crises is managed on the ground, and served as further inspiration to all attending,
tools to erect it, a ground cloth, solar lighting, a stove
to heat or use in cooking, thermal blankets, a water that every human being deserves the basics of food and shelter.
filtration system, mosquito nets and even children’s
activity packets. Choosing the day of our lecture on the refugee crisis, we set up a Shelter Box

The Council decided to include one of our tent on the grounds outside our lecture hall at St. John The Evangelist, and several
schools in this project; believing that our efforts
should be shared with a younger generation bearing of the students from Seacrest along with their Headmaster, Dr. John Watson, and

Upper School Head, Mrs. Erin Duffy, spoke to our audience of 1500 members

endorsing their support of our joint project. Further, we raised another Shelter Box

tent at our Model United Nations competition on March 12th on the campus of

Florida Gulf Coast University, and welcomed Kerri Murray, Shelter Box President,

to address the assembled students.

We are proud of the Naples Council’s contribution to sheltering even a small

number of refugees, and we celebrate the energy behind the recent “Sadie Hawkins

Day” dance at Seacrest which raised enough for the students to buy a Shelter Box

as well.

Remembering that a “rolling stone” [analogy intended] gathers no moss, we are

proud of the shelter that we, the Naples Council and Seacrest Country Day School,

have provided for some number of needy refugees. Perhaps now those “rolling

stones” may begin to gather moss, and we will continue to support our program of

“Gimme Shelter.”

LEARN MORE

Want to know more
about Shelter Box?
Call Laura Kerckhoff,
Shelter Box Ambassador in Naples

239.597.7218

64 Life in Naples | May • June • July 2016