By Emily Drooby
Patricia Brintle visited St. Luke School in Whitestone to pick up a special check.
Kids at the school gave up sugary drinks for Lent to help a campaign called ‘H2O For Haiti.’ Students donated the money, they would have spent on the drinks to build a clean water well. The project is being done by Brintle’s non-profit, ‘From Here to Haiti.’
Brintle, who is the organization’s president, said, “Having something as simple as just a pop or some juice and give that so other children somewhere across the ocean can have fresh drinking water, is something that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.”
‘From Here to Haiti’ repairs Catholic churches and other buildings destroyed by the 2010 Haitian earthquake. So far, they’ve finished over 50 projects.
The students were inspired to help after seeing photos like this of kids traveling far to get fresh water.
Fourth grade student Bianca said, “It felt really good because I love being a follower of Jesus and it’s during Lent so it feels even better.”
While Fourth grade student, Piero said, “It felt really good because I get to help all the people in Haiti.”
From all of the donation envelopes given to Brintle, over 1,500 dollars was raised. Money, which will help build a fresh water well for the community of Leger. The idea for the fundraising came from Sister Katherine Burke, the Religious Education Director at St Luke. Monsignor John Tosi, the pastor of St. Luke, said this campaign is exactly what Catholic education is all about.
He explained, “They learn many things, many subjects, math, history, English whatever, but what we really want to instill in them is a Christian spirit of generosity and love, so I’m proud of them.”
Now that the money had been collected, ‘From Here to Haiti’s’ team will start working on the well right away. It should be done within a month.