The House That Kindness Built...in two hours.
In February this year, five individuals from TIM-BR MART came together at an orphanage and school in Deschapelles, Haiti (2.5 hours north of Port-au-Prince), to complete a project in kindness that was just over one year in the making.
The journey to build the ‘TIM-BR MART House’ (or ‘Kay TIM-BR MART’ as it’s known in Creole) began a few weeks after the January 2010 earthquake. At their annual convention, TIM-BR MART dealers and vendors came together to raise $45,000 in just two hours to rebuild a children’s home at Hands Across the Sea (HATS) - a school and orphanage founded in 2002 by Karen Huxter from Springdale, Newfoundland. Within months, the final total raised would become nearly $65,000.
What spurred the kindness was an earthquake connection that struck close to their collective hearts. Volunteering at HATS last year, Brian Bowers (Pleasant Supplies TIM-BR MART, Yarmouth, NS) stepped inside after the day’s work. At 5:20pm on January 12th, the house and furniture shook, leaving no doubt that the only option was to run. Once outside, Brian remembers "...the concrete wall surrounding the compound was snaking back and forth about 2 feet each way."
Combined with powerful aftershocks, the earthquake left one of the two children’s homes damaged and unsafe. Twelve boys and girls were to spend the next year in the same small home sharing a few bedrooms.
Since then, two TIM-BR MART work groups have visited HATS. In March 2010, Aimee Feaver (TIM-BR MART Corporate, ON) and Rich Huisman (Moulding and Millwork), plus his son Josh, joined Brian on his return trip.
In February this year, Brian and Aimee returned once more, this time joined by Jon Irwin (TIM-BR MART Corporate, ON), Cherie MacDonald (Swinamers TIM-BR MART, Windsor, NS) and Corey Richards (Woodland TIM-BR MART, Fort St. John, BC).
Work on the house began this past November and local Haitians built it nearly to completion. What lay before the work team when they arrived was five days of painting the new children’s home; a solid, wonderfully built house with a bathroom inside. With rollers and brushes in hand, and in heat that sometime reached well beyond 40C, they painted, painted and then painted some more.
When the last brush was cleaned, there was a sense of pride and honour that came from working on behalf of so many dealers, vendors and even TIM-BR MART employees who donated money to make this safe haven a reality.
Said Cherie MacDonald: "I couldn’t have asked for a more meaningful experience."
There’s still plenty of work to be done at Hands Across the Sea because there’s still decades of work to do in Haiti.
Children in the area and from Port au Prince continue to find their way to HATS—whether in need of an education, a meal or a family and love—and they are welcomed with open arms, hopefully sleeping soundly in "Kay TIM-BR MART".
If you’d like to follow the HATS story to learn how you can help (like sponsoring a child to go to school at HATS), follow their blog at www.hatshaiti.blogspot.com or visit their website: www.hatshaiti.com.
Of course, you can always speak to any member of the TIM-BR MART work teams about it. The stories are plentiful. Be sure to tell us how much time you have first.
