2010 Earthquake in Haiti Local Support
On January 12, 2010 at 4:53 p.m. Haiti was hit with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake which left three million people in need of emergency aid. Several countries and agencies immediately began sending aid to those in need. There were also many churches who established mercy missions to the earthquake-ravaged island. One of the individuals called upon to make this heartfelt journey was our own Robie Arnold, a member of Bent Tree Public Safety.
In addition to helping feed children in one of the orphanages and setting up a small clinic to tend some healing wounds, he and the other church members hiked up the mountain daily to a destroyed church where they worked to build a foundation so that a new church could be built. Because there are no building codes in Haiti, things are done a lot differently than they are done here in the States. Instead of concrete footings, they had to place large boulders in the hand-dug trenches, fill the gaps with smaller stones and then bucket-by-bucket pour the concrete. By the end of Robie’s week in Haiti, the foundation for the new church was completed.
The Bent Tree Foundation assisted Robie in this mercy mission by contributing $800 towards his trip expenses. We’d also like to note that many of Robie’s colleagues in Public Safety generously donated a day of their vacation time so that he would be able to go on this mission trip without having to take an unpaid leave.
The Foundation was most proud to have been able to play a role in this very important humanitarian effort.