Tents for Haiti

Blue Ridge Mountain Sports began a tent drive on Wednesday, 1/29 in addition to 20% off any tent with the donation of a used tent or new tarp. Visit this link for more information: www.brmsstore.com/blogs/community/article/108/shelter-for-haiti-tent-drive

I work at a gear shop in Morgantown, WV called Adventures Edge and have been helping collect donations for tents, tarps, sleeping bags and sleeping pads since the 15th.

It’s not a huge operation but we’ve received a good response so far and the first shipment left early this week.

Please check out the link below for more information about the collection. We’d love to be able to help more and hopefully more people can see this and join in the tent-drive! Thanks so much!

http://evanmoore.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/donate-gear-to-haiti

Do you know of any place near Chicago?

Has anyone identified organiza-tions that might have a huge stockpile of family-size new tents? (Collecting used tents might not serve Haitian families well, no longer waterproof, etc.) I would be happy to donate money to provide a sturdy tent that will provide shelter for a family for a long time. Permanent housing may be a LONG time coming.
Do we have any idea what other countries are doing?

On my daily runs I pass by a large marina where boats, sail and power, reside on their cradles all snug and protected for the winter. And they are ALL shrinked-wrapped in this very durable white plastic material (vinyl?) designed to withstand extreme temperatures, wind and the elements.

The thought occured to me in reading your column that a manufacturer of this sheet material could likely send a role of millions of yards to Haiti where it can be subsequently cut up and delivered to the many tens of thousands of homeless — probably less expensive than tents, and can probably cover more ground. I’ll bet you one of the big plastics companies — e.g., DuPont, Monsanto — could help.

I don’t know where you could turn to for guidance on this one, but maybe some of your fans who are into boating can.

Just a thought from one who is deeply concerned about our sisters and brothers in Haiti.

Dome tents may be a good temporary solution; I found a site that makes these tents for emergencies situations like that of Haiti. http://www.shelter-systems.com/relieftents/relief-more-photos.html

I do not know what countries or organizations are providing tents

Folks, we are the tent drive of the nation. We just launched out web site last week. We are trying to organize all the tent drives. We have 75 locations across the country. Our first shipment was 300 tents on a boat to les cayes. Since we set up our site a week ago, people have ordered 768 tents from amazon. Wyclef jean and yele haiti have agreed to be our distribution partners on the ground. We sent them 100 tents by fed ex twice already. Please sign up online and do a drive. This is a national movement. It was started by pastor shaun king in atlanta. I’m a grad student in california. People from all walks of life are involved. We do not have any ego about this. We found another campaign that had raised 350 tents, and we are helping him get his tents to a boat in miami because he already ahd something worked out with the veterans there. We are a grassroots movement. Please join us!

http://ahomeinhaiti.org —Amy Champ

Kelty, with help from Jenny Dubin, Partners in Health, and the Clinton Foundation, has already delivered almost 300 tents to Haiti’s homeless. Here’s a link to details on this effort and info on how to get involved.

http://bit.ly/bNztAO

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m Kelty’s PR guy…