Philipstown Responds to the Haitian Tragedy

The people of Philipstown, clearly moved by the enormity of the Haitian disaster, are coming together in large and small ways to respond to this heart-breaking tragedy. The response of local schools and churches highlights the community's capacity for compassion, solidarity, and activism in the face of such large-scale human suffering far away from the peaceful hills of the Hudson Valley.

"This is a 'teachable moment,'" said Maggie Davis, Haldane's elementary and middle school principal. "We want our kids to know that the Haldane school community has a commitment to our global family in this time of crisis. And even in the long term, they need to understand that we do have a role." Davis envisions at least one school day in the near future that will be dedicated to acknowledging Haiti, and learning about its geography, its history, and its people.

The Haldane schools also plan to raise money for the people of Haiti. Dr. Mark ViIlanti, the superintendent of Haldane Central School District, met with his administrative team of principals and faculty last Friday morning to brainstorm how the school community could respond to the disaster. "We decided to engage our students in the process, instead of simply imposing our ideas on them," Villanti said. "We are meeting with our student councils and other student groups, like our High School International Club, to come up with some concrete ways to help the people of Haiti." Students will likely choose activities that will raise money for the cause, and the school district has a list of approved international relief agencies from which the students can choose.

Stephanie Impellittiere, principal of the Garrison Union Free School, reported that her middle school students have already begun collecting money for Haiti that will go to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF), an international nonprofit medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. The MSF website of January 16 stated that the relief effort is underway in Haiti and that the doctors and nurses on the ground are anxiously awaiting a 100-bed inflatable hospital with surgical capacity before the end of next week.

The Sunday special collection at Our Lady of Loretto Church in Cold Spring yielded almost $5,000. "The people's generosity is always so humbling," said Fr. Brian McSweeney, the church's pastor. "Our parishioners dig deep to fulfill the Gospel message to help anyone, wherever they may be, as we would our 'neighbor.'" The money collected by Loretto will support the humanitarian efforts of the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) in Haiti, per the request of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

According to the Catholic Relief Service website, lifesaving supplies were reaching desperate survivors in quakeshattered Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. CRS is now distributing food and water from its warehouses in the devastated capital city and the city of Les Cayes, and additional aid is on its way from CRS's storehouses in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Members of St. Philip's Church in the Highlands received a flyer at Sunday services listing the humanitarian agencies that their rector, Rev. Francis Geer, recommends for funding during the Haitian crisis. "I chose these organizations because they already have operations up and running in Haiti," the Rev. Geer said. The list includes: Episcopal Relief and Development; The Salvation Army, which began its work in Haiti in 1950; and Partners in Health, a nonprofit group of doctors and health care workers founded by Dr. Paul Farmer in 1987 for the express purpose of providing health care to the under served people of Haiti.

Fr. Shane Scott-Hamblen, Rector of St. Mary's in the Highlands Episcopal Church, has urged his congregation to donate directly through the Episcopal Relief and Development website, er-d.org, so that the funds can go as quickly as possible to the relief effort. "I don't really care how our people help or who gets the credit, but I do have confidence in our church's international humanitarian organization," he said. Asked to comment on the massive human tragedy in Haiti, Scott-Hamblen said, "It's like talking about the national debt; it is too enormous to fathom."

"This is an opportunity for us to physically demonstrate the love of Christ by reaching out to the Haitian people," said Jay Camp, interim pastor of the Cold Spring Baptist Church, in an email. "Although almost everyone in the church had already given to the American Red Cross prior to any formal action by the collective church, we still provided the name of another agency, Bibles International, that donations can be steered to in order to help. Bibles International is already on the ground in Haiti, working to provide not only emergency health care, but also spiritual care to the victims of the disaster. Since we are a small church, we felt that would be the best and quickest way to get aid to the Haitians."

Norman Brown, chairman of the mission committee at First Presbyterian Church of Philipstown, is no stranger to mobilizing local relief efforts in response to disaster. "We were involved in the Katrina catastrophe back in 2006. About six months after the hurricane, we reached out to the people, schools, and churches of seven area communities, Cold Spring, Garrison, Nelsonville, Beacon, Katonah, Poughkeepsie, and Monroe-Woodbury, asking for donations of supplies, clothing, hand tools, and toys. The response was so great that we were able to fill a large moving van and drive it down to Louisiana to help out there," Brown said. "We hope to plan a large on-the-ground response for Haiti, but it will have to wait awhile. What's best right now is for people to donate cash and to pray." The church recommends giving to the Red Cross and to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, agencies that already have a presence in Haiti.

Rev. Leslie Mott, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, added, "I also have witnessed the extraordinary generosity of the people of Cold Spring, Nelsonville, and Garrison. I know that all of our hearts are reaching out to our brothers and sisters in Haiti."