When Marie-Paule Carpenter first heard about the calamitous earthquake in Haiti, it meant more than a natural disaster on a distant island.
‘I have family members who live in Haiti,’ said Carpenter, a speech pathologist at Dr. Bessie Rhodes Magnet School. ‘When the earthquake hit, I hadn’t heard anything about them, so my family and I here in the U.S. worked very hard to see if we could reach them.’
Fortunately Carpenter, whose parents were both born in Haiti, learned her relatives were alive and well. Though her sister, a physician, is already in Haiti caring for survivors, Carpenter decided to take action in Evanston.
‘I can’t leave, so I wanted to do something back home to help,’ she said.
Carpenter is not alone. Evanston students and staff have rallied together to raise funds for the Haitian relief effort. In a few weeks students have raised thousands of dollars with more fundraising events in the works.
Rhodes is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to host a read-a-thon where students pledge to read a certain number of minutes for two weeks. Their goal is to raise $6,710, roughly the amount it costs to build a home in Haiti.
Interim Principal Jason Ewing said the event organizers wanted a ‘tangible’ end product so the younger children could better understand why they were raising money.
‘We also know from our research that the homes built by Habitat for Humanity have withstood the recent hurricanes in the last couple years,’ Ewing said. ‘So we knew that connecting to Habitat for Humanity was a way to show that our donations were put to good use.’
Rhodes is one of many schools aiding survivors. At least eight other schools in Evanston/Skokie School District 65 are organizing fundraisers, including coin-collecting, bake sales and clothing drives. Fourth graders at Lincolnwood Elementary School coordinated a coin drive that collected almost $4,800.
Evanston Township High School isn’t sitting idly, either. Mary Collins, community service coordinator at ETHS, said students selling paper hands and ribbons in the colors of the Haitian flag raised $1,000 in four days.
Philanthropic efforts even united adversaries. At ETHS’s basketball game against New Trier Township High School Friday, all proceeds went to relief funds.
‘ETHS and New Trier are rising above their rivalry,’ Collins said. ‘It’s a great example of people coming together for a good cause.’
She said many students are motivated because of their familial ties to the Haitian community, adding that the earthquake took the lives of six parents of ETHS students.
‘Many families send one parent and the children and try to make a go of it in America,’ Collins said. ‘There are so many families that are affected.’
With a significant Haitian population in the city, the disaster directly affected many students and staff members of Evanston schools, she said.
‘It’s really important that we’re all sensitive to the loss,’ Collins said. ‘You think Haiti’s far away, but in Evanston, it’s really close.’ [email protected]
