Hurricane Matthew left a fatal mess in the Caribbeans last week, especially in Haiti where reports are showing nearly 1,000 deaths. One local church has been quick to respond to the disaster, and this isn’t their first time doing so.
St. Anthony Catholic Parish in Renton has been collecting donations during mass to support their sister parish and school in Haiti.
The church began their relationship with the sister church and school after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the island nation and led to the death of missionary and St. Anthony parishioner Molly Hightower who was working at an orphanage at the time. Hightower’s passing inspired the church to continue on her work in some capacity, so they connected with a parish nearly 15 miles outside Port au Prince through nonprofit Outreach to Haiti.
The sister church is located in a hard-to-access area and at the time was operated out of poorly constructed building with a tin floor and dirt floors, said Larry Reymann, member of the St. Anthony’s ‘Standing with Haiti’ committee. A school with grades one through six operated under the same tin roof.
St. Anthony soon committed to covering the costs for the teachers’ salaries and a nutrition program for the students. The pastor at the sister church received a grant to build a proper school building, and St. Anthony now continues to provide funds to help operate the school, which now offers grades one through eight and has roughly enrolled 180 students.
Each year, a group of St. Anthony members travel to Haiti to visit the school and provide sustainable aid. This year, the group that traveled there missed Hurricane Matthew by days, according to Reymann.
“They were supposed to be there during the week of the hurricane, but they had moved their trip up due to the [Haitian] elections,” Reymann said.
While no one has lost their lives in the hurricane, there has been large damage to structures in the area – except to the school, Reymann said. The hurricane also destroyed all crops, leading to food shortage. But the church is confident in being able to practically and sustainably offer aid with their partnership with Outreach to Haiti.
“Part of the problem is getting the things there,” said Reymann. “That is why Outreach to Haiti has been so valuable to us. They have a system set up so we can send the money to them and they get it directly to Port au Prince. What we’re able to make sure the money is able to get there… that’s what we can guarantee.”
Offering sustainable and empowering those in Haiti are crucial to St. Anthony, Reymann added.
“That school is a competence to the people there when they are given the tools,” he said. “They built a school on a mountaintop through what you can hardly call a road… It is amazing what they can do when given the means.”
Reymann has been on St. Anthony’s Haiti trips four times already.
“We come back from those trips struck by the beauty of the people and the place,” he said.
According to Gary German, parishioner, pediatrician and two-time traveler to Haiti, the trips and relationships he formed with kids have been life changing.
“One of the things we talked about before we went down was what we were afraid of,” said German. “My biggest fear was my heart would go to the Haitian kids. And that’s exactly what happened. They were so genuine and wonderful… I got more more out of knowing them than what I gave them.”
St. Anthony is continuing to collect donations for Haiti. For more information about their work or to make a tax-deductable donation, call 425-255-3132.
