Local churches and schools are answering the global pleas to assist victims of an earthquake that struck Haiti Jan. 12.
According to news reports, the quake registered a magnitude of seven on the Richter Scale, killed an estimated 200,000 people, injured 250,000, and left 1.5 million homeless as buildings crumbled in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Area residents wishing to help can best aid survivors by donating money.
Students at Goodrich Middle School on Friday had hat day, donating a minimum of $1 for Haiti relief. At Brandon Middle School, a collection is being taken among students and staff with funds to be forwarded to the American Red Cross. Make checks payable to the American Red Cross by this Monday, Jan. 25 and deliver to the school office, 609 S. Ortonville Road.
At Belle Ann Elementary, students are having a 2-week coin drive to collect money for the Red Cross. This action is the same as ones they took after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005, and when an earthquake struck in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004, with an ensuing tsunami killing 230,000 people in 14 countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
‘We are looking to help all the displaced, homeless, hungry people without drinking water, food, and medical attention in Haiti,? said Belle Ann Principal Mark Rodak. ‘We want to contribute whatever we can to help the people in that situation.?
Cash contributions can be brought to the school, 155 E. Glass Road, Ortonville, through Feb. 5.
At St. Anne Catholic Church, 825 S. Ortonville Road, The Detroit Archdiocese has requested parishes to take up a collection for Haiti relief. At St. Anne Catholic Church, 825 S. Ortonville Road, checks can be made out to the church, with Haiti relief written in the memo line. Funds will be turned over to Catholic Relief Services.
At all three local Methodist churches? Goodrich United Methodist, 8071 S. State Road, Ortonville United Methodist, 93 Church St., and Seymour Lake United Methodist, 3050 Sashabaw Road, 100 percent of donations to UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) and designated for Haiti will go directly to the relief effort. The churches are also assembling health kits.
For individuals or groups that want to contribute basic necessities, UMCOR requests that the following new items be placed in a sealed one-gallon plastic bag: one hand towel (15? x 25? up to 17? x 27?). No kitchen towels; one washcloth; one comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized); one nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers); one bath-size bar of soap (3 ounces and up); one toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, no child-size brushes); six adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages; $1 to purchase toothpaste (toothpaste is purchased in bulk to be added to health kits to ensure that the product does not expire before they are sent).
Because the emergency kits are carefully planned to make them usable in the greatest number of situations and strict rules govern product entry into international countries, UMCOR requires that the kits contain only the requested items ? nothing more.
‘God has blessed us to be a blessing,? said SLUMC Pastor LuAnn Rourke. ‘We have something to give. Everyone can give something and when we combine all the little things, we can make a difference.?