Haiti Plunge Group Missed Quake; Raising Funds for Victims
 The village cooperative being built by the natives and the Haiti Plunge. |
"I came back a few days earlier because I teach school," said Melissa Torres, of C.T. Plunkett Elementary in Adams. "But it's very scary that it was so close."
Torres sits on the board of directors of Catholic Outreach to Youth Center and is a member of its Haiti Plunge program. Established by Sister Eunice Tassone, the program's been bringing area youth to help build up impoverished villages in the island nation's interior for 25 years.
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Torres said they'd heard indirectly from the group's driver that he and his family were OK. "Our next effort will to contact the people we know there."
The earthquake on Tuesday was the largest recorded in more than 200 years in Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic; there were nearly 30 aftershocks of up to 5.8 in the following hours. Most of the electricity is out and communications are spotty. A major relief effort is being planned by other nations.
The Haiti Plunge started out as a cooperative between nine local high schools to provide youth with challenging opportunities that made a difference. Since then, teams of a dozen or college or high school youth and adults have traveled to Haiti a few times a year to help a number of closely linked villages create sustainable economies.
This past trip to the small village of Desab included students from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, from the Northampton area and other East Coast colleges along with several adults.
"We're working to start building businesses within the cooperative of the villages," said Davis, who was making made her fifth trip to the island.
"I love it. ... The people there are like family and I keep being drawn back in," she said, describing the Haitians as family-oriented, simple people with strong faith. "It's always a rejuvenating experience."
Both she and McConnell have watched adolescents grow into young adults, while Tassone "has seen them from babies through adulthood. They're the leaders now. She's seen the full circle of development."
Davis and McConnell were optimistic that the devastation being seen in Port au Prince isn't echoed in the mountain villages, mostly made up of one-story buildings. This last team had help install a foundation for a center to train women how to sew school uniforms.
A team of high school students is set to fly to Haiti in February to continue the project. "There's no talk of cancelling it," said McConnell. "It may depend on how comfortable parents feel about sending their children there."
It's not the first time the Plunge has helped after disaster's struck. While claiming to be the world's oldest continuing democracy, the small nation has been wracked by violence, poverty and tyranny along with natural disasters, including a 2008 hurricane that caused deadly mudslides.
 A collapsed building on Tuesday in Haiti. |
"Because of the poverty [Haiti] is especially vulnerable," said Torres. "It's lacking in fresh water, lacking in jobs. It takes an already vulnerable country and puts it into a tough position."
Donations can be dropped off at the COTY Center in the St. Elizabeth's Parish Center or mailed to COTY Center, PO Box 745, North Adams, MA 01247. Checks should be marked ERQ, for earthquake.
"We're going to work with Janet Bauman, director of Save the Children in Port-au-Prince," said McConnell, who wasn't sure if Bauman had survived. "I don't know. I haven't gotten a hold of her."
