Troops collect for Haitian kids

News-Times reporter

Amherst Brownie Troop #341 and Daisy Troop #580 spent nearly two hours Thursday evening collecting supplies to help the citizens of earthquake ravaged Haiti.

Residents came to the Nord Middle School cafeteria and dropped off such items as diapers, formula, hand sanitizer, baby wipes, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, antiseptic, bandages, cotton balls, snacks, hard candy, and powdered juice mixes. One woman even donated a box full of feminine hygiene supplies.

Most of the donated items will help the millions of displaced children and their families affected by the earthquake.

"I try to do a community service project every month with the girls," Amherst resident and Brownie Troop leader Misty Kelley said. "The one we had planned last month fell through and then Jacob brought home this flyer from Nord that they were doing this collection. So, I snagged the flyer from him and I e-mailed the teacher and I said hey, would you mind if our Brownies and Daisies helped out. And she, of course, was very appreciative. So, we threw it together and it worked out very well."

So far, 81 orphans have been adopted by families located throughout the United States, the Netherlands and France. Nord Middle School fifth grader teacher Wendy Kerschner's sister volunteers her time at one of the orphanages located on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince and was able to adopt one of those Haitian orphans.

However, the Haitian government has ordered all adoptions which were not being processed prior to the earthquake to stop for nearly two years. This is due to the fact their parents are still recovering in area hospitals and will make every effort to find their siblings once they are discharged.

"When they brought these 81 orphans over on the plane, the owners of the orphanage turned around to go directly back and Haiti closed their airport," Kelley said. "They were getting so many people coming into their country and they already have mass chaos going on there and they don't need anymore people."

They were eventually able to return to the battered country after Naval officers on the USNS Mercy had newborn babies in incubators who were left parentless after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

The outpouring of support was so great, Kerschner had to remove the back seats from her minivan to fit all of the boxes filled to the brim with donated items.

She also received monetary donations to help offset the cost of shipping these items to the Haitian orphanage where her sister works. On Saturday, Kerschner packed and mailed several flat rate boxes made available courtesy of the United States Postal Service.

"All of these supplies are going to the orphanages," Kelley said. "Right now the big thing is money that would be really good because they are trying to get all of these people tetanus shots."

All of the money left over went towards the purchase of tetanus shots for the Haitian people.

Kerschner has been staying in touch with her sister via through the social networking websites Facebook and Skype.

Kelley was impressed the Daisy troop -- which consists of girls in the first grade -- and her own Brownie troop -- consisting of girls in the third grade -- were able to grasp the concept of helping people in a different country who really needed it.

"I think it's hard for me to grasp the magnitude of what has happened there," Kelley said. "Here in the states, we have the means to look for people and treat injured people here. And they were in a bad situation to start with."

Anyone wishing to make a monetary donation can do so by going to www.godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org and clicking on "chip in" located on the right side of the home page. All of the money will go directly toward the orphanage. As of Monday, the creators of the site have raised $148,595.17.

People can also help by making a $10 donation to the American Red Cross by texting the word "Haiti" to 90999. The contribution will be added to their monthly mobile phone bills.

As of Monday, Americans have pledged more than $30 million for Haitian relief efforts.