|
Press Room
Written by Judy Bastien jbastien@dailyworld.com 1:10 AM, Feb. 2, 2011| Volunteers raced against Tuesday's approaching storm system to load about 800 5-gallon buckets onto an 18-wheeler parked at the rear of the Opelousas Civic Center. The last of the shipment made it onto the truck as the downpour drenched the city. The buckets were filled with relief supplies for the victims of the 2010 earthquake that left parts of Haiti in ruins. They contained a variety of items, including tarps, rope, dry goods, food and other items, said Daryle Williams of Compassionate Services International, a St. Louis, Mo.-based organization that specializes in disaster relief. The latest local effort to help the people of Haiti still living in deplorable conditions was organized by Mark Majors, president of Med Express, who is also a board member of Compassionate Services. The supplies were bound for the Port of New Orleans, where they were loaded onto a ship that leaves today for Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, where it is expected to arrive Feb. 17. The group's most recent project to collect supplies for Haiti's earthquake victims is a follow-up to an effort that began with Med Express and Boy Scout Troop 121. Shortly after last year's earthquake, representatives of Med Express and Compassionate Services met with the Boy Scout troop to launch an effort to collect and assemble personal care kits to be sent to Haiti. The project was successful, and the model created here was adopted by groups across the United States, Canada and other places, Majors said. As the anniversary of the earthquake approached, the effort began again. "Before Christmas, we got together (with the Boy Scouts) again," Majors said. The project got the entire community involved, he added. "We got an incredible amount of support from the mayor's office, the police department, throughout the community — the Lighthouse Mission was so vital to us," Majors said.Volunteers from among the residents of the Lighthouse Mission, a men's shelter, helped with the project. "They were instrumental in organizing the initial shipments and packaging all of this," said Rodney Ryder of Med Express. Help also came from outside the local community, from Leesville residents Luther and Gail Green, who spent several days in Opelousas, helping to organize the supplies. Although both are hearing impaired, they participate in humanitarian efforts in the United States and abroad. Organizers are confident that their efforts will have the intended effect. There is a system in place to make sure the supplies collected from the community make their way to those who need them, said the Rev. Ray Majors, a retired Pentecostal minister and Mark Majors' father. "Whatever is accumulated here gets to the people. "We don't just send it down there, hoping the right people get it. We'll see it on the ship today," he said Tuesday, "and it'll be sailing tomorrow. And on the 17th of February, it'll arrive in Port-au-Prince and we'll have a team on the ground to receive this, actually take possession of it and distribute it to be sure it all goes to where it's supposed to go."  Rodney Ryder, far right, Med Express Ambulance representative, is joined by volunteers as they load buckets of supplies aboard a cargo container Tuesday at the Opelousas Civic Center bound for Haiti. / Photo by Freddie Herpin  January 13, 2011 Parish remembers 2010 quake in Haiti By Paul South psouth@dailyworld.com
The one-year anniversary of the earthquake that rattled Haiti to its soul and claimed the lives of approximately 230,000 people is not forgotten by St. Landry Parish. Schools, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, local businesses, physicians and churches from Opelousas, Church Point, Arnaudville and across the parish gathered forces and collected money, food and personal hygiene items. They also found the power to help packed in a bright orange plastic bucket. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Cub Scout Pack 121, Boy Scout Troop 121, MedExpress and others began a concerted parishwide push and collected 6,500 orange buckets and 165,000 personal care kits. Those kits provided lifesaving medicine, personal hygiene and first aid items, a tarp and rope to provide temporary shelter, a gift and Kool-Aid to spark joy in the broken hearts of Haiti's children. The rope and tarp in each bucket meant shelter for displaced Haitians. According to The Associated Press, more than a million people remain homeless. Twisted metal and tent encampments are common sights in Port-Au-Prince, the nation's capital. The faces of Haiti's children are still fresh on one St. Landry Parish businessman's mind. "The kids have such a resolve," said Mark Majors, president and CEO of MedExpress and Coordinator of Disaster Relief Services for Compassion Services International. "There's such an optimism. I don't see it in the leadership. I don't see it in the adults and older people, but the kids believe they're going to get past this." While other relief organizations sent large shipments of food and medicine to Haiti, the orange buckets, donated by businesses across South Louisiana, have left a memorable mark. Once empty, the pails allowed people to get lifesaving clean water for drinking, bathing and cooking, a critical commodity in the wake of a cholera outbreak. "One-inch PVC pipe is just going all over the place," said Rodney Ryder, a spokesman for MedExpress. "Fresh, clean water is flowing out of those pipes. The buckets allow those people access to clean water." In the last months of 2010, MedExpress again teamed with local Cub and Boy Scout Pack 121 And Troop 121, and collected another 1,000 orange buckets filled with personal care items for families. The city of Opelousas also donated 45 cases of personal care items to Haiti relief. The buckets and other items will be shipped to the island nation next month to benefit some 800 families. Majors said young people helped spark the bucket drive in St. Landry Parish. "I would give anything if the kids here could meet the kids in Haiti," Majors said. "Other organizations are doing big things with food and medicine. What the kids did here is simple, but it's much-needed. When you see those orange buckets from Opelousas and across South Louisiana, I'm just really grateful to be able to coordinate this. A little effort can make a big difference." Majors has helped coordinate disaster relief around the world, including the tsunami in Sri Lanka, but Haiti is different. Its wounds are fresh. Only 5 percent of the rubble left by the disaster has been cleared, according to the Associated Press. "Haiti is a little bit different than other disasters," Majors said. "What we saw in Haiti right after the quake still exists." Meanwhile, Port—Au-Prince was quiet Wednesday as Haiti marked the anniversary, the Associated Press reported. Many people wore white, a color associated with mourning in Haiti, and sang hymns as they navigated collapsed buildings and rubble from the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that left much of Port-au-Prince in ruins and, by the government's imprecise estimate, killed hundreds of thousands. Evens Lormil joined mourners in a crowd at the Catholic cathedral, its towering spires and vaulted roof now collapsed, waiting for a memorial Mass next to what was once a prominent landmark in a ragged downtown. The 35-year-old driver of the collective taxis known as tap-taps said his wife and two children were in the countryside north of the capital, still too traumatized by the quake to attend the service, or live in the city. "I'm here to mourn all the victims," he said before the Mass, which was held in a tent next to the ruined cathedral. "Even though life was bad before the earthquake, it got worse. I am hoping the country can move together and come forward." Terez Benitot, who sat barefoot outside the Mass because there was no room inside, said she lost a cousin in the earthquake, her house collapsed and her husband, a mason, has less work than before the quake. "God blessed me by taking only one of my cousins that day," the 56-year-old woman said. "Our house collapsed but we have health and life." The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 Hurricane Preparedness Paramedic of the Year 2010
 MedExpress Companies newsletter "MedExpressions"
ARCHIVES: |
 |
