Ten dozen brand-new Hanes T shirts are on the way to the United Hearts Orphanage in Montrouis, Haiti. The 120 shirts are white with a gold buffalo and Catalina Island race logo on them.
The shirts are left over from the Avalon Lions Club 50 Mile benefit run held on Catalina Island each year. The shirts are in two donated suit cases which will be taken as extra baggage on the Haiti bound plane with luggage fees paid for by the Avalon Lions Club.
Ten dozen brand-new Hanes T shirts are on the way to the United Hearts Orphanage in Montrouis, Haiti. The 120 shirts are white with a gold buffalo and Catalina Island race logo on them.
The shirts are left over from the Avalon Lions Club 50 Mile benefit run held on Catalina Island each year. The shirts are in two donated suit cases which will be taken as extra baggage on the Haiti bound plane with luggage fees paid for by the Avalon Lions Club.
The next Catalina Island 50 mile Benefit Run will be held on Saturday Jan. 11, 2014. Call John Regalado at 310-463-4921 for details.
The donated shirts are being delivered to Haiti by a support mission team from the Avalon Community Church. Blanca Alvarez, Diana Alvarez, Emma Ownes, Carly Sabicer, Susanna Savitt, Scott and Darlene Schmeckpeper, Andrew and Catlin Quintana and Yasi Khairolomour departed on December 27 and return on January 3, 2014. Darlene Schmeckpeper is the United States Coordinator of support for the orphanage.
United Hearts Orphanage Pastor Oguenol felt God leading him to start an orphanage, but he did not have the space or financial ability to do that.
Still hopeful, he started a free school for the poor neighborhood children in Haiti. All schools in Haiti require a fee or you cannot attend. He would hold class outside under a tree with a old chalk board. More and more children came every day. One day some of the children were not picked up. When Pastor searched for their parents he found that the parents had moved to the mountains to be away from the earth quake damage. The parents would not take the children because they could not feed or care for them.
That is how the orphanage started – in Pastors unfinished house for sleeping and a palm frond hut for a church building.
Thanks to generous support of prayer, labor, and money, the orphanage now has facilities to house and feed the children. The needs are many: safe drinking water, adequate food, medical care and educational supplies. Presently there are 47 children and 14 adults at the United Hearts Orphanage, all working together toward a better life.
For more information or to support the orphanage go to: www.unitedheartsorphanage.org. In Avalon you can contact Darlene Schmeckpeper at 310-418-0638 when she’s back from Haiti.
