Stories

 Updated December 9, 2021 4:33 pm

Flood victims in Interior communities are getting a massive helping hand from two B.C. companies.

Stormtech Performance Apparel is donating thousands of new clothes valued at $600,000 to disaster-impacted communities, while Mountain Equipment Co-op also donated clothing valued at around $36,000.

On Thursday, approximately 1,500 pieces of clothing were expected to arrive in Princeton, around 2 p.m., while donations to Merritt are expected later this month.

In an email to Global News, Stormtech said it was donating more than 9,700 pieces of outerwear and accessories.

“Thousands of families have been displaced without their possessions and require immediate assistance,” said Blake Annable, Stormtech president and CEO.

“As a company who calls B.C. home, we are committed to mobilize and leverage our available resources to help the affected communities.”

Making this all possible was the Rotary Club of Golden Ears Sunrise in Maple Ridge, which said donations to Lillooet and fire-destroyed Lytton are also being discussed.

Club member Suzanne Bebbington said member Gavin Herholdt had contacts with Stormtech and MEC and worked very hard with the companies to put the donations together...

An estimated 500 million people worldwide became infected. Many cities closed theaters and cinemas, and placed restrictions on public gatherings. Rotary clubs adjusted their activities while also helping the sick.

This is how Rotary responded to the influenza pandemic that began in 1918 and came in three waves, lasting more than a year.

The Rotary Club of Berkeley, California, USA, meets in John Hinkel Park during the 1918 flu pandemic.

Photo by Edwin J. McCullagh, 1931-32 club president. Courtesy of the Rotary Club of Berkeley.

Rotary and the United Nations have a shared history of working toward peace and addressing humanitarian issues around the world.

During World War II, Rotary informed and educated members about the formation of the United Nations and the importance of planning for peace. Materials such as the booklet “From Here On!” and articles in The Rotarian helped members understand the UN before it was formally established and follow its work after its charter. 

Many countries were fighting the war when the term “United Nations” was first used officially in the 1942 “Declaration by United Nations.” The 26 nations that signed it pledged to uphold the ideals expressed by the United States and the United Kingdom the previous year of the common principles “on which they based their hopes for a better future for the world.” 

In early 1919, Rotarian Roger Pinneo of Seattle, Washington, USA, traveled to the Philippines to try to organize a Rotary club in Manila. Leon J. Lambert, a Manila business leader helped Pinneo establish the club. Several months later, on 1 June 1919, the Rotary Club of Manila was chartered and became the first Rotary club in Asia.

The club would be the only one in the country for more than 12 years. Eventually, Manila club members organized Rotary clubs in the Philippine cities of Cebu (1932) and Iloilo (1933). Iloilo club members then started a club in Bacolod (1937), and Rotary continued to expand across the country.

Every hero has an origin story. “I was 10 years old when the entire journey started,” explains Binish Desai. It began with a cartoon called Captain Planet, an animated TV series from the 1990s about an environmentalist with superpowers. Desai can still recite the show’s refrain: Captain Planet, he’s our hero / Gonna take pollution down to zero! “That tagline stuck in my mind,” he says. “I wanted to do something to help Captain Planet.”