ROCKFORD—Hope for Haitians has been building homes and otherwise assisting people in Haiti for 20 years.

 

Its annual fundraising celebration, “An Evening in the Tropics,” was held Aug. 28 in Rockford, welcoming people from around the diocese who have supported the project for a few or for many years.

 

Executive director Christopher Weickert noted the new donor wall of “giant duplo blocks” at this year’s event. The seven by nine foot yellow wall had blocks bearing the name of an individual, group or company that provided the funding to build a house. 

 

The cost of a home, Weickert says, is significant, and a new initiative introduced at this year’s banquet is designed to address that effort. 

 

The “Home Team” is where a group of donors come together and communicate for a year, when their monthly donations will have built up to pay for the construction of a home.

 

“It’s a way for the everyday donor to help build a house,” Weickert says, adding the organization also sees it as a way to reach and encourage younger donors.

 

Several diocesan priests were in attendance including newly-ordained Father Aaron Downing who was attending his third Evening in the Tropics. 

 

Last-minute guests included two missionary priests from the Diocese of Quilon, India – Father Pius Malliar and 

 

Father Santhosh Yohannan – who came from St. Rita Parish in Rockford, escorted by Father James Canova. They are currently stationed in Indianapolis and were here to preach a parish mission.

 

Also glimpsed at the beginning hour of mingling were the three men who began Hope for Haitians and continue to serve on its board: Patrick Bachrodt, Peter Roche and Thomas Lorden, and longtime board member Father David Beauvais.

 

An ongoing slide show included “Before” and “After” pictures of a family who received a new, solid home in Haiti. Building homes has been a 20-year focus for the group. 

 

Hope for Haitians also addresses other challenges to the residents of their villages, including a community center in each that provides a setting for many village activities from church services to medical clinics and more. The organization is supported entirely by dona-

tions from individuals, corporations, foundations and churches.

 

Funds raised by the evening event were targeted to support construction of a new village in Pistere, Haiti, which will complete a community that will be managed by trained local leadership and sustained though supportive activities of both Hope for Haitians and other partner non-government organizations, including Food for the Poor.

 

Rounding out the evening was a silent auction and, of course, a great deal of fellowship. The evening included a round of “Happy Birthday” for patron Fern Shore of Sterling who turned 98. She smiles as she notes that she has been a happy supporter of the work of Hope for Haitians for all of its 20 years.

 

Although damage wrought by the recent earthquake was not the focus of the evening, Weickert notes that the organization’s first village was in the earthquake zone, but the other villages are farther north and were untouched by the disaster. 

 

Dr. Cleantus Jean, Jr., executive director in Haiti, Weickert adds, has been busy coordinating meaningful and direct responses of assistance, and Hope for Haitians is planning to provide additional support targeting earthquake relief in the near future.