Shaker Campus Helps in Haiti

2/9/2010
In response to the earthquake that shook the tiny island of Haiti last month, students at University School's Shaker Campus launched a penny battle to raise money for the Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS) in Deschapelles, Haiti. The students raised close to $6200 over a two-week period. Each of the school's ten houses competed to fill penny bins with change and bills.

Click here to view the segment that recently aired on WVIZ PBS Ideastream on the fundraising effort.

University School eighth graders, Robert Sherman and Taylor Mehalko, who helped organize the effort, recently presented a check to Rachel Rawson, whose grandparents, Larry and Gwen Mellon, founded the hospital in 1956. Located outside Port au Prince, the Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti is one of the closest modern medical facilities to the city that had not been destroyed by the earthquake.

As medical teams continue to work in Port au Prince without sufficient facilities or supplies, victims are being transferred (via improvised pick up truck "ambulances") to HAS. Supplies are limited and what little resources there are have diminished rapidly. Ms. Rawson's father is working at the hospital, and reports that the teams are operating around the clock to address the needs of the people there.

Ms. Rawson's family has had a long-standing commitment to the people of Haiti. A Life Magazine article about Albert Schweitzer and his work in Africa inspired her grandfather. He and Dr. Schweitzer began a long friendship, and both inspired each other.

For information on Hopital Albert Schweitzer, please click here.