Many students at Middletown High School were devastated when they learned of the ravaging earthquake that hit Haiti in January, and left thousands of people dead and at least 1 million homeless.
It didn’t take long for fundraising efforts to get into full swing, especially since the students and teachers there had been donating to Haiti for more than five years already.
Students in the school’s French and International clubs had been working closely with an elementary school in Port-au-Prince, just 16 miles from the center of the quake. MHS provided the Haitian school with essential classroom items like chalkboards, sandals, and handmade practice books written in English and French, and last year, the club raised $250 toward repairing the school’s roof.
But the Bethesda School, which served more than 500 children in Haiti, was unfortunately destroyed during the earthquake, leaving Middletown students heartbroken and even more eager to help.
Cindee Joshua, a French teacher at MHS who initiated the relationship with the Bethesda School through the nonprofit organization Partners With Haiti, said she is proud of her students for having so much compassion.
“I had former students asking if the school was okay and my current students were just anxious to get more fundraising efforts together,” Joshua said.
Joshua’s students spent all of last week working during lunches to sell Mardi Gras beads and rubber bracelets that read “Hope for Haiti, Middletown Cares.”
During the partnership, Joshua worked extensively with the man who founded the Bethesda School, Nathan Cherelus, who was also a minister in the Port-au-Prince community.
“He saw how many kids in his village weren’t able to go to school, so he opened up his home for the children,” she said. “He only uses one room in that building as his home and the rest of it is made up of three or four classrooms for the kids. It was totally out of the kindness of his heart.”
Joshua said Cherelus did survive the earthquake, but he is currently outside on cardboard with his family.
“We’re just hoping to get them back up on their feet as soon as possible,” she said.
Joshua said helping the children in Haiti became a passion of hers and she was happy to pass that on to her students as well.
Other Middletown students have also joined the efforts. Jobs for Delaware Graduates, a group at MHS, has collected crutches to send to Haiti and student Maeghan Bice will coordinate a flag football fundraising event as part of her senior project.
Former MHS student and French Club President Elyssa Young said she was part of the first group of students who began working with the Bethesda School and she was sad hear it was destroyed.
“We all had a vision for this. We had fun doing it,” she said. “It was educational for us and we were helping them.”
Joshua said she would like to keep the partnership between the two schools going as long as possible.
“We’re planning on continuing for years and years,” she said.
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Many students at Middletown High School were devastated when they learned of the ravaging earthquake that hit Haiti in January, and left thousands of people dead and at least 1 million homeless.
It didn’t take long for fundraising efforts to get into full swing, especially since the students and teachers there had been donating to Haiti for more than five years already.
Students in the school’s French and International clubs had been working closely with an elementary school in Port-au-Prince, just 16 miles from the center of the quake. MHS provided the Haitian school with essential classroom items like chalkboards, sandals, and handmade practice books written in English and French, and last year, the club raised $250 toward repairing the school’s roof.
But the Bethesda School, which served more than 500 children in Haiti, was unfortunately destroyed during the earthquake, leaving Middletown students heartbroken and even more eager to help.
Cindee Joshua, a French teacher at MHS who initiated the relationship with the Bethesda School through the nonprofit organization Partners With Haiti, said she is proud of her students for having so much compassion.
“I had former students asking if the school was okay and my current students were just anxious to get more fundraising efforts together,” Joshua said.
Joshua’s students spent all of last week working during lunches to sell Mardi Gras beads and rubber bracelets that read “Hope for Haiti, Middletown Cares.”
During the partnership, Joshua worked extensively with the man who founded the Bethesda School, Nathan Cherelus, who was also a minister in the Port-au-Prince community.
“He saw how many kids in his village weren’t able to go to school, so he opened up his home for the children,” she said. “He only uses one room in that building as his home and the rest of it is made up of three or four classrooms for the kids. It was totally out of the kindness of his heart.”
Joshua said Cherelus did survive the earthquake, but he is currently outside on cardboard with his family.
“We’re just hoping to get them back up on their feet as soon as possible,” she said.
Joshua said helping the children in Haiti became a passion of hers and she was happy to pass that on to her students as well.
Other Middletown students have also joined the efforts. Jobs for Delaware Graduates, a group at MHS, has collected crutches to send to Haiti and student Maeghan Bice will coordinate a flag football fundraising event as part of her senior project.
Former MHS student and French Club President Elyssa Young said she was part of the first group of students who began working with the Bethesda School and she was sad hear it was destroyed.
“We all had a vision for this. We had fun doing it,” she said. “It was educational for us and we were helping them.”
Joshua said she would like to keep the partnership between the two schools going as long as possible.
“We’re planning on continuing for years and years,” she said.
