SEQUIM — If you see a green 10-person tent in the middle of a community festival or corporate parking lot in western or central Washington, you can be fairly certain Jim Pickett is there.
Pickett, 71, is one of two Sequim residents who are the nation’s top fundraisers for ShelterBox, a worldwide relief effort begun in 2001, which several Rotary Clubs across the North Olympic Peninsula support.
The other half of the duo is Tom Schaafsma, 61, a member of the ShelterBox volunteer response team who has traveled to Mexico, Peru and Honduras to help thousands of refugees cope in the wake of catastrophe.
Both men are members of the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club, and both are big on travel — if it involves transport of the 120-pound ShelterBoxes.
In the past year, Schaafsma and Pickett’s fundraising presentations have brought in $64,000, a sum that surpassed the efforts of some 550 other Rotarians across the United States, according to ShelterBox USA spokeswoman Leslie Diefenbach.
Those donations paid for 64 ShelterBoxes, self-contained crates loaded with 10-person tents, tools, water purification tablets or filters, blankets, mosquito nets and cooking equipment.
Over the past decade, ShelterBox response teams have aided people affected by more than 100 disasters in 62 countries, Diefenbach said from ShelterBox USA’s headquarters in Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
Recent relief
“In the last few months alone, ShelterBox has helped tens of thousands of survivors in seven countries, including the typhoon-struck Philippines, tsunami-battered Samoa, earthquake-torn Indonesia and flood-ravaged Niger,” she added.
Such a litany could overwhelm anybody — but not Pickett and Schaafsma. The two longtime Rotarians have developed their presentation skills on trips all over Washington.
They explain how ShelterBox volunteer teams bring supplies to refugee sites within four days of a disaster.
The teams have helped set up tent cities for AIDS orphans in Africa and hurricane survivors in Biloxi, Miss., among many other locations.
Schaafsma returned about six weeks ago from Mexico, where he brought ShelterBoxes to survivors of the devastating Hurricane Jimena.
Last year he confronted the aftermath of floods in Honduras, and in 2007 he traveled to Peru, where whole communities were reeling from an earthquake.
This work is “sobering, rewarding and frustrating,” Schaafsma said. “The most difficult part of the job is that you never have enough relief materials to meet the need. You go in and do the best you can with what you have.”
Pickett, meanwhile, plays the equally crucial role of fundraiser. Three weeks ago, he gave a presentation at Microsoft in Redmond; while there, he set up the 10-person tent in the midst of a rainstorm, and came away with donations to purchase eight ShelterBoxes.
“[This] is far and away the most satisfying role I have ever had as a member of Rotary,” Pickett said.
He doesn’t mind the long drives to companies and other Rotary clubs around the state.
His wife, Cherie, often goes with him to help set up the tent, Pickett said, and they like to make the most of a day by hitting a club’s morning meeting and then moving on to another club that meets at lunchtime.
Rotarians are generous once they see how the ShelterBox relief system works, Pickett said.
He added that Scott Robinson, owner of European AutoWerks in Carlsborg and a member of the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club, has temporarily closed his business while he completes ShelterBox response team training in England.
Robinson will reopen the shop after he returns Nov. 23 and, Pickett said, he will become an on-call volunteer disaster responder.
Meantime, Pickett continues his work to gather funds for more ShelterBoxes.
To anyone who asks, he readily lists local Rotary clubs that accept donations: the two in Port Angeles, two in Sequim, two in Port Townsend and one in Chimacum.
All are reachable through www.Rotary.org, while information about ShelterBox’s international work is available at www.ShelterBoxUSA.org or by phoning 941-907-6036.
Schaafsma, for his part, is planning a pleasure trip — sort of. In January or February he’ll visit his son Torin, 24, who is in the midst of a two-year service project in Colombia.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
