"We got the message!" --CNN

Friends of ShelterBox! Your tremendous efforts are paying off! We just received THE call from CNN, and they told us--"We know, he knows, we got the message!" ("He," as in Larry King!!!) Hooray! Our publicity team will now be working diligently to keep the interest high and, hopefully, to get Tom Henderson and ShelterBox to be featured on Larry King Live! We're keeping our fingered crossed while we pack and send off our final little reminder to Larry--an actual ShelterBox filled with more of your "Hi Larry" letters, drawings, and photos!

Thank you so much for all your hard work, all your letters and YouTube video views, and all your support! Your efforts have gotten us one step closer to being featured on Larry King! YOU are making it happen! THANK YOU!!!

Hi Larry! We've asked by snail mail, now by YouTube...

Larry, please invite ShelterBox onto your show!

Larry, Have Your People Call our People

Hi Larry! We're sending you THOUSANDS of letters from people all over the world asking you to invite ShelterBox onto your show! We hope you'll consider our request and give us a call!

Mail Your Larry Letters TODAY!!!

Good Morning ShelterBox friends! Today is the DAY ONE of our three day "Hi Larry" mailing campaign! If you haven't already, get out your pens and paper and write two notes to Larry King asking him to invite ShelterBox onto his show! Mail one letter to:

Larry King
CNN America Inc
6430 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Mail the other to (this one will go into an actual ShelterBox that will be sent to Larry's studio!):

ShelterBox USA
Attn: Larry King
8374 Market Street #203
Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202

Our goal is to send Larry 10,000 letters, one for each ShelterBox we deployed last year. Please join in the effort and send your letters no later than Wednesday. We have confirmed that over 2,000 letters from 40+ nations are being sent today. We need YOU to get us to our 10,000 letter goal!

If you have any questions about the campaign, email us at info@shelterboxusa.org. Happy writing!

Hi Larry! A ShelterBox Volunteer Does Ironman!

Larry, our volunteers are an amazing bunch. YiShun Lai, our Response Team member from White Plains, New York, has been training not only to accompany ShelterBox aid to disaster zones, but to take part in Ironman Switzerland! YiShun will be leaving on July 8th to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles--all within 16 hours and with ShelterBox in mind! Wow! In honor of this feat, YiShun has raised funds to sponsor two ShelterBoxes to help 20 disaster survivors for 6 months or more. Check out her campaign page here: http://www.firstgiving.com/yishunSRT. Heck, she's on a roll... maybe she'll raise three or four boxes!

Larry, YiShun is just one of the amazing people you'll be hearing from shortly, asking you to invite ShelterBox onto your show. How can you turn her down? Please give us the opportunity to share ShelterBox stories with you and the nation on Larry King Live.

Hi Larry! Today, on World Refugee Day, ShelterBox helps the displaced in Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Today is World Refugee Day and ShelterBox is on the ground in Pakistan and Sri Lanka where the refugee situation is dire. About 3 million people in the two countries have been displaced and left without shelter. In Pakistan, ShelterBox has distributed more than 1,000 ShelterBoxes, providing emergency shelter and essential equipment for up to 10,000 people who have been made homeless by the fighting between the army and militants in the North West Frontier Province. In Sri Lanka, ShelterBox has so far helped up to 7,000 people who were displaced in the final weeks of the civil war. There are currently about 300,000 people in Sri Lanka and 2.4 million in Pakistan requiring emergency shelter. US donors have sponsored over 130 of the boxes to Pakistan and over 100 to Sri Lanka.

Larry, ShelterBox never misses a beat. We provide aid to the most vulnerable people around the world. Won't you help us spread the word by inviting us onto your show? (Photo from an IDP camp in Vavuniya District, Sri Lanka, courtesy of ShelterBox Response Team member Laura Jepson.)

Our First "Hi Larry" Letters!

This week we received our first "Hi Larry" letters! Today, young volunteer Kourtney Linn delivered her very own ShelterBox message to our office to be included in our Larry King mailing on July 6th! And yesterday, ShelterBox USA volunteer and Board President Ed Koplos brought us dozens of "Hi Larry" letters! Ed collected the letters at his Rotary Club meeting (thanks Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch!). We are collecting the letters and sending them to Larry on July 6, 7, and 8. Remember--our goal is 10,000 letters. Have you started writing yours yet?

Other ShelterBox volunteers are working hard to make sure our campaign is a success: Connecticut volunteer Sue Klock is bringing 700 blank postcards to the Rotary International Convention in Birmingham, England, this weekend and encouraging our Rotarian supporters to write a note to Larry while visiting the ShelterBox booth. And Washington volunteer Connie Lewis is appealing to her local radio station to announce our campaign on the air. Our ShelterBox friends in Denmark, England, and Germany are helping too! Larry, ShelterBox is truly a global effort--won't you invite us onto your show?

Hi Larry! 32,000 Swazi Children receive School Packs and Eating Utensils

ShelterBox Founder and CEO Tom Henderson and a ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) have just returned from Swaziland after visiting the country to oversee the distribution of 32,000 special school backpacks to AIDS orphans. ShelterBox is working on this special project with The Piers Simon Appeal, a UK charity. Piers Simon was killed in the Tsunami in 2004 and his family set up the charity in his memory. Piers’s brother Luke is a trained SRT (ShelterBox Response Team) volunteer and was part of the SRT in the country. His parents also traveled to the African kingdom. “It was fantastic to finally go to Swaziland and see the school bags being distributed,” says Luke. “The children have so very little and the school bags will make a real difference.” In addition to school equipment, each bag contains a plate, mug and a spoon to enable the children to have a midday meal. There are an estimated 70,000 AIDS orphans in Swaziland, with 15,000 child-headed households. The school bags project is being co-ordinated in the country by the National Emergency Response Council on HIV AIDS (NERCHA).

Larry, ShelterBox helps vulnerable families throughout the world regain their dignity during their time of crisis. Wouldn't you like to talk to our founder, Tom, about our amazing humanitarian efforts?

Hi Larry! 2,000 Cyclone Survivors Receive ShelterBox Aid in Bangladesh

ShelterBox has just distributed 200 boxes to survivors of Bangladesh's cyclone Aila, which struck the nation on May 25. “The recipients were so grateful. Whole villages had been destroyed and people were forced to live out in the open. The tents have given them the opportunity to start rebuilding their lives,” says ShelterBox Response Team leader Pat Prendergast. 25 of the boxes were sponsored by generous US donors--including Rotary clubs and other supporters from New Hampshire, Washington, Tennessee, Kansas, California, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin.

Larry, ShelterBox works around the clock to provide life-saving aid to disaster survivors. Won't you feature us on your show?

"Hi Larry" Campaign Officially Launches!!!

Today we have officially launched our "Hi Larry" campaign, our effort to convince Larry King to feature ShelterBox on his CNN show! Beginning today, we at ShelterBox USA HQ will be working diligently to get Larry's attention, but we are only three ladies in an office so we need your help! Please follow this blog and join in the effort to get ShelterBox the national attention it deserves.

We will be contacting Larry through a targeted letter-writing and social networking campaign. We want you to join in and have a lot of fun--our only rule is that you stick to our campaign schedule (see Campaign Timeline at right). Our first task--to send Larry 10,000 letters (one for every box we deployed last year) telling him why we love ShelterBox and asking him to invite us onto his show.

Why Larry King? ShelterBox has already been featured on CNN's Impact Your World and CNN Heroes, and we think that Larry's show is the natural next step. Larry King Live is CNN's most-watched program, attracting a million nightly viewers. ShelterBox USA wants to tell the nation and the world about our amazing work: in less than 10 years, our small but nimble organization has deployed over 51,000 ShelterBoxes, helping over 750,000 people affected by 90+ disasters in 56+ countries. Wow! Hi Larry! Please invite us onto your show!

Hi Larry! ShelterBox has just delivered aid to 2,500 displaced people in northern Pakistan!

See the full story here.

ShelterBox Featured on CNN's Impact Your World!

We want ShelterBox to be invited onto Larry King Live!

This blog is dedicated to ShelterBox USA's grassroots campaign to get ShelterBox to be featured on CNN's Larry King Live! ShelterBox is an international disaster relief organization that has provided shelter to over 750,000 people in less than 10 years. Our founder Tom Henderson was selected to be a CNN Hero in 2008, and in May, 2009 ShelterBox appeared on CNN's Impact Your World. Now we want to tell the world--(Larry King's one million nightly viewers)--about our amazing organization! Hi Larry! Please invite us onto your show!