Article Contributed on: 12/21/2006 10:51:00 AM
On December 15, members of the Commerce City Rotary Club and Project C.U.R.E. in Brighton loaded 15 wooden crates filled with half a million dollars worth of donated medical equipment and supplies headed for Kiritimati (Christmas) Island.
This filled container should leave the West Coast this week on a freighter bound for Honolulu and will be at sea on Christmas Day. Once in Honolulu the crates will be off loaded and stored until mid-January, and then will set sail on Kwai, a motorized sailing vessel. Kwai's
Captain Brad, said, "The people of Christmas Island" will have our 'Christmas Present' by the first week in February".
The 52-member Rotary Club has worked relentlessly for months investigating the needs of the Christmas Island people, obtained, cleaned, sorted, and packed the equipment and supplies; built the 15 crates plus loaded and shipped the container; in addition, solicited funds to cover the cost of shipping.
The Rotary's wonderful "Christmas Present" will be going to a tiny atoll located 1200 south of Hawaii in the Republic of Kiribati. This island and its residents are facing unprecedented environmental, social and economic challenges with no means for assistance.
"It is impossible to describe the magnitude of need," Commerce City Rotary's World Community Service Chair,
George Maybee said. "They have competent medical personnel but virtually nothing to work with and very little hope for improvement."
"The hospital is an old British Military building with almost no facilities or equipment. No beds, birthing table, baby scales or delivery equipment, women in labor must sleep on concrete floors with only a hand-woven reed mat. They use a 100 year-old operating table that won't go up or down, manual oxygen and anesthesiology equipment for surgery and the list goes on and on," exclaimed Maybee.
The Commerce City Rotary Foundation is still accepting year-end tax deduction contributions for the shipping cost which amount to be over $19,000. For more information you may contact
George Maybee @ 303-655-9831 or gkmaybee@aol.com Contributions may be sent to: Friends of Christmas Island
Commerce City Rotary Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 1882
Commerce City, CO 80037-1882