Building shelter: Nonprofit hosts first San Diego event

“[In school] I was learning and discovering all the greatest things about modern physics, and I was filled with hope and possibility,” Gilpin said. “My classmates and I were going to cure diseases and save the environment and we weren’t limited by anything. And two years later, I’m sitting on my couch watching people drown in New Orleans and I’m thinking, ‘We have the materials to make flood resistant doors, and windows that can resist 150 mph winds. This didn’t have to happen.’”

Gilpin’s smarts, coupled with a service-oriented outlook, led the young activist to develop International Green Shield, a nonprofit organization that helps build sustainable, disaster-proof structures for people affected by harsh climates and natural disasters. It plans to help rebuild and strengthen homes, schools, bridges and other infrastructure, and work with partner organizations to coordinate humanitarian aid in areas decimated by natural disasters. It also aims to build research facilities devoted to natural disaster research.

In October 2008 - in the midst of a hostile economic environment - Gilpin took a leap of faith. He left his cushy job crunching numbers for HBO and worked full time to build IGS.

He assembled a team of friends who subscribed to Gilpin’s vision, and the team hosted its first fundraiser in January. In 2009, the team has raised more than $10,000 through benefit concerts, fashion shows and online donations. It hasn’t been easy building support, said events coordinator Summerly Nichole Horning. But the organization has teamed with young musicians and artists to build partnerships and build IGS’s base of support.

“In most cases it takes a year to get your feet under you, and considering just how new this organization is, $10,000 is really fantastic,” said Philip Jordan, a San Diego resident who joined the IGS team from the get-go. “I haven’t seen anything like it in this economic climate or in others to be quite honest. It’s attributed to really good event planning and marketing.”

Initially, Gilpin planned for the organization to focus its efforts on research and fundraising for a planned research facility.

When Jordan came on board, though, that changed.

Jordan, a lawyer who worked to jumpstart a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that benefits children who live in poverty in the Dominican Republic, linked IGS with the Colegio Los Niños, the School for Children.

The school, located in a hurricane prone region of the Dominican Republic, is raising funds to purchase a land plot and build a new schoolhouse. The 15 children in the school - many who live in “abject poverty” Jordan said - attend class in a rented, three-room building with no opportunity to expand.

IGS hopes to help contribute sustainable, natural disaster resistant production materials, and volunteer construction labor to the project.

“We wanted to get our feet on the ground and a hammer in our hands to what we’re capable of doing,” Gilpin said. “We’re an organization of young, energetic, service-oriented people who just want to help.”

IGS also reached out the Hogar Montiel Orphanage for girls in Costa Rica. It hopes to build a “stronger, safer home” for the orphanage’s residents.