FALL RIVER: Although the earthquake that devastated Haiti was a few months ago, the situation remains dire as the country struggles to return to normalcy.
“At the airport,” said Annette Verge, CAO for Halifax Regional Municipality, recently returned from the Dominican, “every boutique and little shop had these huge fundraising boxes, three feet high, and they’re literally half full with donations. That’s just from people travelling from all over the world to the Dominican, so clearly this tragedy has had an impact beyond their borders. While I’m sitting there, I got in a conversation with a woman who volunteered for Haiti relief. She told me a story of one mother who lost five of her seven children in a school that had collapsed. You gasp and wonder how people could continue on, but one of the main reasons they can is because of efforts like this.”
For local residents looking to show their goodwill towards the rebuild efforts in Haiti, they now have a nearby spot that can be used to drop off donations.
The Fall River Open Gate Church and the Halifax Regional Municipality have agreed to a short-term lease that allows the old Fall River Recreation Centre to be used as a drop-off for donations.
District 2 Councillor Barry Dalrymple said HRM has granted the church permission to use the centre as a collection depot. He said items will come from across Nova Scotia.
“Everything will be stored here and then loaded into a container, which will be shipped onto Haiti,” Dalrymple said.
The effort is similar to ones across Canada, which is being headed up by the Canadian board of God’s Littlest Angels (GLA). GLA is a Colorado-based faith group that says it was established to “care for premature, malnourished, and abandoned children in Haiti.” It relies on funding collected by churches in North America and Europe.
Rick Cruse, pastor with the Fall River chapel of the Open Gate church, said the drive is geared towards being a community-based effort
“We’re just serving as the point people,” Cruse said.
He said local area schools, the Riverlake and District Lions Club, and other community organizations will be approached to become involved in the effort.
“Through one of our members, Orv Thamer, we discovered that they (God’s Littlest Angels) were looking for spots across Canada that could be shipping points,” Cruse said. “Obviously, this seemed to be a good place because there are people collecting across the Maritime region. But they needed to have a central point, and in order to be a central point we needed a place to store things. That’s when we approached HRM to see if this empty facility could be used for that.”
Among the only specified items that people can drop-off which are needed urgently by GLA includes infant Tylenol, diapers, wet wipes, baby formula, soy formula, infant cereal, antibiotics/medicines, Vitamin K (for ingestion), infant vitamins, diaper rash ointment, lotions, powder, baby shampoo, portacribs.
Some of the relief aid needed included bottled water, blankets, candles, towels, sheets, rags, toddler clothes, shoes and sandals rain gear, non-perishable food items, individually wrapped snacks (granola bars, fruit snacks), water purification tablets, canned meats and beans, tomato paste, dried red beans, rice, cooking oil, tents, tarps, rope, flashlights, batteries, buckets for water and work gloves.
“For me this is such important work,” Verge said. “It jumped out at me when I saw the e-mails to me on this.”
She said gestures like the Open Gate church donation drive are crucial to the rebuild efforts in Haiti, a fact given weight by all those donation boxes in the Dominican airport.
“On the resorts, you’re separated from the reality of what’s taken place since January,” Verge added. “There was some discussion about the earthquake on the resort, but it really hits you differently when you’re at the airport.”
She chose to remain at the airport while her flight was delayed and talk to people about the earthquake’s lasting impacts. The effect was sobering.
“The ongoing effort is vital so what you’re doing is meaningful and important work. Residents of Fall River should be very proud.”
phealey@enfieldweeklypress.com