Wal-Mart Tree Sale Benefits Haiti Mission Trip
HUNTINGTON, IN JANUARY 2, 1997--- Huntington Wal-mart manager Lana McQuitty today presented Huntington College students with nearly $3,000 to benefit the students' January Term service-learning trip to Haiti.
Wal-mart sold Christmas trees for the students throughout December, raising $2,055 for the Haiti project. Wal-mart then added an additional $885.38 from its Community Matching Grant fund.
"When Wal-mart comes into a community and generates a lot of revenue, we want to give something back," said McQuitty. "These are the folks who make us successful, and we want to see their community-building projects succeed, too." McQuitty noted that the Huntington Wal-mart contributed more than $8,000 in Community Matching Grants to various local project during 1996.
This is the second consecutive year that a Huntington College January Term class has planned volunteer service in Haiti. Last year, under the leadership of Huntington physician Bill Webb and mathematics professor Win Wetherbee, the class brought a critically ill Haitian orphan to Fort Wayne for lifesaving medical treatment. The little girl was subsequently adopted by an Indiana family. Her story captured the hearts of people throughout northeast Indiana.
This January, 20 Huntington College students will return to the Haitian village of St. Ard to assist local missionaries with a variety of work projects. Some students will provide support services to traveling medical clinics in remote mountain villages, while others will help complete construction of a medical clinic in St. Ard. Other students will teach English to Haitian schoolchildren.
Along with these responsibilities will come opportunities to study the language, history, and culture of the Haitian people and to gain an increased awareness of the needs of the Third World. Huntington College students may earn up to 2 hours of academic credit for the experience. The trip will again be led by Dr. Webb.
"The Christmas tree fund-raiser was for students' travel expenses, but we hope to raise quite a bit more for construction supplies, educational materials, medicines, and clothing for the orphans," said Webb. "We can treat 2,000 people over the course of two weeks, but we will require $3,000 in medicines and medical supplies alone."
The team will leave for Haiti on January 7. Area residents wishing to support the volunteer effort may send a financial gift to Haiti Trip, Office of Campus Ministries, Huntington College, 2303 College Avenue, Huntington, Indiana 46750.
The Haiti trip is one of many intensive learning opportunities available at Huntington College during January Term. Other service-learning opportunities will take students to Indian reservations in the American west, and to Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Uganda. Other students will pursue January Term classes in Hollywood, England, and Italy.
Huntington College was founded in 1897 by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. For nearly a century, Huntington College has offered high-quality academic programs "to equip men and women to impact our world for Christ." Located on a contemporary, wooded campus in Huntington, Indiana, the four-year liberal arts college offers graduate and undergraduate programs in nearly 50 academic concentrations.
