BB&N Community Rallies in
Wake of Haiti Earthquake
Grade six teacher Sharon Mathieu helped to organize charitable efforts on the Lower School campus.
Following Haiti’s devastating January 12th earthquake, the BB&N community united to help the cause through a number of different outreaches.
“These past several weeks have provided yet another reminder of how difficult times bring the core values of our School to the fore and summon up the best traits of the BB&N community,” wrote Head of School Rebecca T. Upham in a letter to the community. “When word of the Haiti earthquake arrived, our students sprang into action immediately, supported and guided by our faculty.”
Working with Partners in Health, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing preferential healthcare for the poor, the School has funneled charitable donations to the cause, and witnessed incredible grace and humanity in a time of great need on all three campuses.
On the Lower School campus, sixth grade teacher Sharon Mathieu spearheaded an effort to collect medical supplies to doctors treating patients in Haiti. In conjunction with the Edward W. Brooke Charter School, The Glover School, Mother Caroline Academy, and Adams Montessori School, BB&N Lower School students gathered thousands of essential supplies which have been given to the organization, Hope for Haiti.
“BB&N students alone collected over 5,000 items,” says Mathieu. “Hope for Haiti is not so much a part of what is going on in Port Au Prince, but is focusing on getting supplies to the people in the surrounding countryside. As people are shifted away from the capital, these surrounding areas will have the greatest need for supplies."
Hope for Haiti is taking a U-Haul to Naples, Florida, where General Electric has provided a private jet to fly four doctors and the collected supplies down to the ravaged country. One of the doctors on the flight will be Dr. Vladimir Mathieu, a cousin of Sharon Mathieu’s husband.
"Dr. Mathieu traveled to Haiti three days after the quake and said it was incredibly frustrating because they had no supplies except what they had brought,” Sharon says. “It was heartbreaking for him to see so many people who could not be treated for simple issues like infection and dehydration simply because they lacked the appropriate supplies and water."
At the Middle School, students worked overtime to put the heart in Valentine’s Day.
“One of the initiatives of leadership council each year is to run the kiss-o-gram sales. You can buy a card for 50 cents and put a message on it and send it along with a Hershey Kiss,” says teacher Gus Means. “We sell them during the two weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, and deliver them the Friday before. All proceeds this year were donated to Partners in Health to aid Haiti.”
Students Judah Burstein, Aaron Orbey, Julia Tompkins, and Lydia Zaleski (all 8th graders and part of leadership council) took the lead on the project, and were overwhelmed at the huge response. Next month’s upcoming read-a-thon will also raise funds for Haiti.
Fundraising continued at the Upper School as well where student leaders fired up their classmates at an Upper School assembly in mid-January with a call for contributions to Haiti. “Donate anything you can, everything helps,” was the mantra, and it did not fall on deaf ears.
By February 1st, thanks to the combined efforts of all three campuses, the BB&N community had already surpassed by several hundred dollars its $10,000 goal for PIH’s efforts in Haiti. Even after the immediate need subsides, BB&N hopes to maintain a long-term connection to Haitian relief efforts. One possibility that has been discussed is contributing to the rebuilding of a school in Haiti.
Senior Jeffrey Fortunato summed it up best: “It is really a testament to the kind of people we have here at BB&N.”
BB&N thanks everyone for their gracious efforts.
Click Here if you’d like to contribute to BB&N’s Haiti relief efforts.
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Photos
Lower School students collected over 5,000 items essential to the relief effort in Haiti.
Partners in Health founders Ophelia Dahl and Paul Farmer spoke to Middle School students during a visit two years ago.
The BB&N community has combined to raise more than $10,000 towards Haiti relief. (Please note that the number of donors shown above is far less than the actual number—the School collated all student contributions into a single source.)