Barrels of Hope

Download our Booklet to learn all about us!

rhinorss — Fri, 13 May 2011 02:54:54 +0000

Download our BoH Booklet to learn about what we’re doing.

Featured in the Fine Print

rhinorss — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:18:44 +0000

Read the article here and be sure to pick up a paper copy around Gainesville.

BOH makes Sweet 16 for Cade Prize!

rhinorss — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 20:56:31 +0000

Barrels of Hope is one step closer to winning the Cade Prize of $50,000!! It was announced on February 15th that we were selected to the Sweet 16 round, out of 92 applicants. We couldn’t have made it this far without all of our amazing supporters and volunteers.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110214/articles/110219711

Please visit the Cade Museum website here to learn more about the grant, the other Sweet 16 finalists and the Cade Museum.

Pike Nursery donates 200 rain barrels!

rhinorss — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:33:46 +0000

On Wednesday, January 25th, Barrels of Hope received a shipment of donated rain barrels from Pike Nursery in Atlanta. As the semi-truck backed into the parking lot of INDIGOGreen Store and opened the trailer doors we were greeted by an amazing surprise – 200 rain barrels, each retailing between $100 and $200, ready to be filled with earth-bag building supplies and shipped down to Haiti. We even received several 500 Gallon barrels that will be a perfect fit for a school or hospital!

We are so thankful to Cliff Cork and everyone at Pike Nursery for such a generous gift to our cause. Please visit their website www.pikenursery.com or visit one of their many locations in Atlanta.

See more pictures here!

Partnership: Engineers Without Borders

rhinorss — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:05:36 +0000

Since our founding last March, Barrels of Hope has created a partnership with the University of Florida chapter of Engineers Without Borders to verify our construction method against hurricane and earthquake resistance testing on our earthbag structures. While more testing is planned, to date this building method has survived 2×4’ cannon shots at 30, 50 and 80mph. The team is preparing to test a full earth-bag wall at hurricane-strength pressures, equivalent to winds up to 130 mph.

By qualifying our design with strict Florida Building Code which is based on the International Building Code, the design gains validity as a viable, low-cost, low-tech building option, ensuring the safety of Haitians and future disaster victims utilizing this method, driving donations and international funding opportunities, and further legitimizing Barrels of Hope as a leader in post-disaster sustainable shelter distribution and water collection.

Demonstration Build & Fundraiser – Almost finished!

rhinorss — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:29:05 +0000

Over the last couple months we’ve been building our demo earthbag shelter. This project is to educate the local community about the Earthbag Shelters we are building in Haiti for earthquake victims. Come check out our project and help us slap up some mud!

Location: 1815 NW 102nd place Gainesville, FL 32609

When: Saturday December 11, 2010 – 9am-4pm

Directions from Gainesville: going north on SR121, cross over HGWY 441 by the State Troopers station, turn right on NW 102nd Place, then go to end of dirt road Or take 441N to SR121 North, turn right on NW 102nd Place, then go to end of dirt road.

Demonstration Build and Fundraiser – Part 4

rhinorss — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:18:39 +0000

Join us as we RAISE THE ROOF on our Earthbag Demo Shelter! A huge Thank You to all of our volunteers who have helped us get all the earthbags up for our demo shelter. Now, all we need to do is final two steps: getting the roof on and plastering. This will be the fun part as we see the the completed work come together!

Please RSVP on the Chapter’s Calendar

You can also follow us on Facebook at “Barrels of Hope”

For monetary donations, visit the Chapter’s Barrels of Hope page

For food/supply donations or more information, email barrelsofhope@usgbcheartfl.org

Location 1815 NW 102nd place Gainesville, FL 32609

Directions from Gainesville: going north on SR121, cross over HGWY 441 by the State Troopers station, turn right on NW 102nd Place, then go to end of dirt road Or take 441N to SR121 North, turn right on NW 102nd Place, then go to end of dirt road.

Demonstration Build and Fundraiser – Part 3

rhinorss — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:11:55 +0000

Our own demo shelter is making progress but we still need your help! Please join us as we continue filling bags for our last few rows! Then we’ll work on the framing and our roof!

When: Saturday, October 23rd; 8am-Noon OR 2pm-6pm

Where: 1815 NW 102nd place Gainesville, FL 32609

Demonstration Build and Fundraiser – September 18th

rhinorss — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:06:25 +0000

In July we sent a team to Kenscoff, Haiti to construct our first Earthbag house. Pictured here is a team of folks working at the site and the almost completed house with bamboo benches in front and the concrete plaster going on.

Our second demo build will bring together folks from all over the area interested in learning more about earthbag construction and ready to get their hands dirty in the process! Mike Amish, our Team Leader from that first trip, will be on hand to lead the demo build and talk about his experiences in Haiti. With this demo build we are also looking for trip leaders to go down on our next trip to Haiti. Learn how you can volunteer your time and skills to come with us on our next scheduled trip and be an active part of Barrels of Hope!

We are also looking for sponsors to provide food and drinks for all our hard workers and some construction supplies to complete our demo shelter. If you don’t want to stick your hands in the mud but want to support the Barrels of Hope project with food, drink, building supplies, or monetary donations, contact us at the email address below.

Please RSVP so we know how many people to feed. Then, bring your work gloves and a couple bucks to throw in the donation barrel! See you on the 18^th!

Location 1815 NW 102nd place Gainesville, FL 32609

Day 6: Jacmel

rhinorss — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:38:30 +0000

Coming home from traveling to another land is like waking from a dream. Everything that has been so vivid and real to you suddenly dissolves back to familiarity. Sitting in the Port Au Prince airport after an incredible deisel-fumed, roller-coaster, 3hr-1986 Toyota van ride, my head is still cloudy. Waking at 4AM (while its still mercilously cool) on my last day in the beach town of Jacmel, we wound our way through the mountains cheating death at every hairpin turn. The same mountain path which my road trip companion/translator Aleme and I had our car quit on us just 11 hrs earlier.

As fate would have it, we had just met the Mayor of Jacmel that morning, and he agreed to give us a space of land next to a “tent city” to build our next earthbag house on. So when your car quits outside a town that you know barely anyone, you call the Mayor’s assistant. Without hesistation, they let us bring the car to the Mayor’s house where his mechanics were ready to give us the diagnosis on the cooling system. To have your own mechanic at your house would be strange enough if it weren’t even stranger that the entire city is swarming with motorcycles that the Mayor’s motorcycle business provided the local working population with for very cheap. Anyway, the car was to be fixed this morning with Aleme wiaitng for the driver (not everyone knows how to drive in Haiti like the US) and I sitting on the seat between the driver and the passenger seat.

Now that I’m getting ready to leave this mysterious, loving, terrible, island I’m thinking about how important it is that eveyone who donated to the Barrel of Hope cause understand the dire reality of the situation here and how getting land granted by Mayor Zenni is a huge step in teaching sustainable building with earthbags. -back in the USA today, Mike