Ray is the only one looking directly at the camera

On Monday 12th December, a lorry set off from our Warehouse in Preston loaded with 13,600 of your shoebox gifts for the children and families of Odessa and Kiev in Ukraine. A similar load will shortly be setting off for north-east Romania and Moldova. RIBI President, Ray Burman, visited the Shoebox Warehouse twice in December. He was very impressed with what he saw and with all the practical work that the scheme generates for Rotarians throughout RIBI. On his second visit he made a video message to send to all Rotarians in the New Year via the Rotary website.
www.ribi.org/about-us/whos-who

District Governor Mukesh Malhotra asked delegates to bring items to fill shoeboxes at his conference in Southampton in October. The items were then put into the Rotary shoeboxes at the Conference and 131 were filled. This was an ideal way of encouraging clubs to get involved with the Scheme and see how easily it can work. RIBI President Ray Burman was also at the Conference and enthusiastically gave his backing to the Scheme. We look forward to many clubs from District 1140 now joining the Scheme.

As many of you will know, our shoebox scheme operates all year round, not just at Christmas. Last month we cleared out our main warehouse ready to start a new year and sent 2,972 boxes to Kiev, Ukraine.
These will be distributed by our good friend Pasha Ozeruga. He will eventually supply us with his usual report and photos, detailing how and where these boxes were given out.

Arthur and Geraldine Fitzharris from Bray, Co. Wicklow (just north of Dublin) fill hundreds of Shoeboxes themselves every year. They do this by raising money with coffee mornings etc., and then buying from shops any unwanted stock or items with damaged packaging. Their aim is to fill 1,000 boxes a year.