Caribbean-themed event opens hearts and doors for Haiti

The 10-year involvement and steadfast support from northern Illinois residents ensured The Hope for Haitians Committee and Food For The Poor’s fundraising event, An Evening in the Tropics, was a well-attended event with more than 320 guests.

Residents from the Rockford/Chicago communities showed their commitment to Haiti by funding the final phase of construction for the Hope Friendship Village in Chastenoye, Haiti, and the first phase of a self-sustaining village in Mazere, Haiti. Donors also provided school sponsorships for 200 children from the Rockford Friendship Village and the Hope Friendship Village.

Rhythmic sounds of a steel drummer started the Caribbean-themed event’s cocktail reception and exclusive silent auction. Bidding on auction prizes offered opportunities for guests to donate to the cause at the same time. Prizes included art and collectibles from the Caribbean and Latin America, designer jewelry, luxury vacations, and golf and dining packages. An Evening in the Tropics offered a full night of exceptional dining, dancing and inspirational moments.

During the cocktail reception, guests for the first time had an opportunity to walk inside a pre-fabricated structure that portrays a 12-by-12-foot yellow Food For The Poor house. For $3,200, Food For The Poor can build a single-unit home with sanitation to replace a crumbling shack that leaks when it rains. The simple structure had a tremendous impact on the guests. Since 1982, Food For The Poor has constructed more than 76,013 new housing units with concrete foundations, locking doors, windows, and zinc roofs with hurricane straps in the countries it serves.

The event co-chairpersons and committee members devised a unique way to inspire attendees to contribute toward making a difference in the lives of others. For a $25 donation, more than 100 guests purchased a starfish for the chance to win either a Tiffany gold and silver cross necklace or a men’s Polo watch.

Five-year-old Riley Kegley’s fundraising campaign started even earlier. In July, to prepare for his birthday, he decided to donate his birthday savings to benefit the people of Haiti. With the help of his mom, who is a committee member, Riley created a YouTube video to share his birthday goal with family and friends. To his surprise he not only raised enough money to buy a cow – he raised enough money to buy two cows and three goats.

The master of ceremonies for this year’s event was 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 this annual event’s proceeds.

Event committee members included 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 included: 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 Restaurant, 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 the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry 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.

Contact:
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>

Six villages and counting, thanks to a dedicated parish

For 13 years, Father Richard Martin, pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Burke, Va., has worked side by side with Food For The Poor to help transform the lives of hundreds of families who once lived in deplorable conditions in Haiti.

On Friday, May 27, Fr. Martin presented Food For The Poor’s CEO/President Robin Mahfood with another generous check. Nativity Parish’s 2011 Lenten collection will be used to build 100 new homes in its seventh village. “Nativity Village in Mazere” will be located in Cap-Haitien.

“Food For The Poor has delivered aid and so much more to those who are desperate for help, and together we make a difference,” said Fr. Martin, Church of the Nativity. “I want to thank all of you for being shepherds. All of you are caretakers and shepherds. What would Food For The Poor be without its shepherds?”

In 1998, Fr. Martin’s church built its first “Nativity Village” consisting of 27 homes in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with help from Food For The Poor. Since making that commitment, every year for more than a decade, Nativity has taken on additional projects to ease the suffering in the Caribbean nation. By the end of 2010, that first project at Canapé-Vert grew to six complete “Nativity Village” developments. Now, there are more than 800 houses in various parts of the country.

“Here at Food For The Poor, we are very thankful for Fr. Martin and his compassionate parishioners. Because of their loving kindness, many lives in Haiti have been changed and will continue to be changed for the better,” said Mahfood. “What a tremendous blessing Nativity has been to us.”

Since February 1999, Nativity parishioners have accompanied Fr. Martin on mission trips to Haiti, to see for themselves the fruits of their generosity. As he celebrates his 45th anniversary as a priest, he will continue the tradition, and will head back to Haiti with volunteers from his parish this summer for the ground breaking of “Nativity Village in Mazere.”

“This village will provide so much more than just 100 new sturdy homes with sanitation,” said Jim McDaniel, a Nativity parishioner and Food For The Poor staff member. “There will be a water filtration system, a community center for vocational training, and agricultural projects – this way the people can grow their own crops and generate revenue to become self-sustaining.”

Last June, 13 parishioners from Nativity Parish traveled to Cap-Haitien with Food For The Poor to visit “Nativity Village at Chastenoye,” where 50 homes were built for 50 families who were relocated from Shada. This Cap-Haitien slum is an inhumane place with no clean water; a place where the smell of garbage, along with the smell of burning trash fills the air.

Click on links for a look back at Nativity’s 2010 mission trip to Cap-Haitien, Haiti:

Part I: Church of the Nativity mission trip

Part V: Church of the Nativity mission trip

Part VII: Church of the Nativity mission trip

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.

Contact:
Wanda Wright
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
wandaw@foodforthepoor.com