Project Haiti piling up aid

Within 48 hours of Haiti's devastating earthquake, Project Haiti based in the Crosby area has raised more than $10,000 and also is collecting medical supplies to support relief efforts during this catastrophe.

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And donations continues to grow.

For more than 20 years, Project Haiti, started by volunteers in the Crosby/Aitkin area, has supported medical missions to Haiti. Specifically, the organization has spent the last 10 years providing medical advice and technical support to a charity hospital it helped establish in Pignon, which is located about 60 miles from Port-au-Prince.

Dr. Paul Severson and Dr. Howard McCollister, both surgeons at Cuyuna Regional Medical Center who also operate at Riverwood Healthcare Center in Aitkin, have traveled with medical teams many times to Pignon to perform operations and train Haitian physicians. They've been planning a trip there in March with a team of about 12-15 medical professionals to train about a dozen surgical residents from Port-au-Prince on surgical techniques. But McCollister said Thursday that this trip likely will now involve treating quake survivors, possibly in Port-au-Prince.

"It's a disaster of unimaginable proportions," McCollister said. "It's really hard for people who haven't been there to even get your mind around what's happening there. Can you imagine a town of 3 million people without a fire department? A town with meaningful emergency services doesn't exist. There are no bulldozers or heavy equipment. There's nothing down there."

Patty Nelson, a retired nurse from Aitkin who serves as secretary-treasurer and coordinator of Project Haiti, said she has been corresponding via e-mail with Dr. Guy Theodore, who owns the charity hospital in Pignon that Project Haiti supports. Nelson said the tremors were felt in Pignon but the city wasn't damaged in the earthquake. She asked Theodore if his hospital was going to care for quake victims and he said he was offering free medical services for them and has sent supplies to Port-au-Prince.

An injured earthquake survivor received treatment Wednesday at a medical clinic set up at a United Nations base in Port-au-Prince. Associated Press/United Nations

Nelson said the conditions are so horrible in Port-au-Prince that the day after the quake, victims already began showing up on the hospital's doorstep because they had nowhere else to go. Nelson has been on 41 medical missions to Haiti and is working feverishly to try to secure donated medical supplies here to be able to ship to Miami so they can be delivered in a timely fashion to Haiti. Nelson Trucking in Deerwood has donated its services to ship supplies at no cost to Florida, which will then be sent on to Pignon.

"They're walking up there as we speak," Nelson said of quake victims to the charity hospital. "So we need to get supplies there quickly."

Nelson said she's spent the last few days fielding many calls from people here wanting to help. Several Minnesota hospitals have called to donate medical supplies and individuals are calling to donate money.

"It's unbelievable the amount of response," said Nelson. "Haiti never gets anything, no matter how hard it gets. This time, this has really gotten to people because of the devastation. The magnitude of this has really hit home to everyone."

The Norman C. Skalicky Foundation, in conjunction with the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, is issuing a match up to $50,000 to the central Minnesota region to support relief efforts under way in Haiti. This matching donation also includes Project Haiti as a recipient.

The Central Minnesota Community Foundation has established the Help for Haiti Fund for the victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake and has provided the first donation to the fund.

A total of $15,000 has been committed from CMCF and its affiliate foundation, the Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation. The foundation also will work with other local funders to generate donations.

Donors may designate one of the three options: Project Haiti, American Red Cross-Haiti Relief and Partners in Health. Undesignated funds will be divided evenly among the three.

Checks should be made out to CMCF/Help for Haiti and can be mailed to or dropped off at the Central Minnesota Community Foundation office at 101 S. Seventh Ave. No. 100, St. Cloud, MN 56301. Credit card donations can be made online at www.communitygiving.org. If donors want to designate one of the options above, that should be added to the check or online form.

As more information emerges about conditions in Haiti and about relief efforts, the foundation may add to its list of designated recipients.

To find out more about Project Haiti or to send a tax-deductible donation directly to the organization, contact Nelson at (218) 927-2634 or projecthaiti@charter.net. Donations may be mailed directly to Project Haiti, 123 Minnesota Avenue S., Aitkin, MN 56431.

JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.