Friday, September 9, 2011

Hope for Haiti unites Rockford residents

Are you in need of some Caribbean flair? There is still time to purchase your ticket to The Hope for Haitians Committee and Food For The Poor’s 10th annual fundraising event An Evening in the Tropics, Saturday, Sept. 10 at Giovanni’s Restaurant & Convention Center. Come enjoy the melodies of a steel drummer and a heavenly slice of key lime pie as Illinois residents gather to raise money to build a village in Mazere, Haiti, and provide school sponsorships for 200 children from the Rockford Friendship Village and the Hope Friendship Village.

An Evening in the Tropics will include a cocktail reception, silent auction, and formal dinner with friends and members of the surrounding communities. Bidding on silent auction prizes such as exclusive art and collectibles from the Caribbean and Latin America, designer jewelry, vacations, golf and dining packages offer opportunities for guests to shop and donate to the cause.

For additional information regarding the An Evening in the Tropics event, including sponsorship levels and tickets, which are available at $100 per person, please call, 1-888-404-4248 or visit the website www.FoodForThePoor.org/rockford.

Master of ceremonies for this year’s event is veteran broadcast journalist Mike Robinson. Co-chairmen Tom Lorden, Pat Bachrodt and Peter Roche and members of the surrounding communities have traveled multiple times to Haiti to meet the people who directly benefit from the annual event’s proceeds.

This year, Hurricane Irene postponed the travel plans for five residents of the Rockford/Chicago-area communities to visit Haiti with the nonprofit Food For The Poor. The trip has since been rescheduled for October. Group members will survey earthquake damage in Port-au-Prince, meet children and their families who live in Shada in thatched homes built on rotting trash, learn about a women’s empowerment program where greeting cards are made using banana bark, and distribute hygiene supplies at a Cap-Haitien prison.

Event committee members include Joseph Altenhoff, Patrick Bachrodt, Rev. David Beauvais, Virginia Canavan, William Clancy, Michael Delany, Brian & Missy Hand, Frank Haney, Msgr. Robert Hoffman, Theresa Kegley, Danny Lorden, Tom & Nancy Lorden, Bob McLaughlin, Philip Nicolosi, Patti Rangel, Peter Roche, Andy Schultheis and Jerry Weber.

An Evening in the Tropics sponsors include: AAA Quality Limo, Aurora Central Catholic, Bachrodt Motors on State, Dick & Marg Bachrodt, Lou Bachrodt Auto Group, Lou Bachrodt Foundation, Barrick Switzer Long Balsley & Van Evera, Ralph J. Baudhuin Foundation, Boylan Catholic High School, William & Catherine Clancy, Comerica Bank, Mike & Donna Cristoforo, Crowe Horwath, LLP, Mike & Colleen Delany, Diamond Envelope, Tony & Jean Domino, Focus Financial Advisors Inc., Joe Geraghty, Giovanni's Resturant, Brian & Missy Hand and Family, Joe Hansberry – NAPA, Holy Family Church, Kelley Williamson Company, Thomas & Lesley Killoren, Jeffrey & Sally Krogh, Lorden Charitable Foundation, Robert and Mary Lou McLaughlin, Rebecca Newton, Nicolosi & Associates, OSF St. Anthony Medical Center, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Rhonda & RC Pottinger, Resource Dealer Group, Inc, Risch Family Foundation, Riverside Community Bank, Peter & Sandy Roche Family, Savant Capital Management, Fern Shore, St. James Catholic Church, St. John Neumann Church, St. Katherine Drexel, St. Thomas More, Warner Specialized Petroleum Services, and WIPFLi HEWINS.

Food For The Poor, the third-largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Contacts:
Jennifer Leigh Oates
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
jennifero@foodforthepoor.com

Tom Lorden
Event Co-Chairman
815-964-1904
tomlorden@hotmail.com

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