The Story of Project Haiti

           A team of sixteen physical and occupational therapists from Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital will be traveling to Les Cayes, Haiti throughout the spring and summer of 2012, in order to provide rehabilitative care to the victims of the devastating earthquake. In partnership with Medical Teams International (MTI), the therapists will be traveling in groups of four and will be staying a total of ten days at a time. They will be working in a variety of different settings including an outpatient prosthetics and orthotics clinic, as well as the local inpatient hospital. The teams will be exposed to a wide variety of diagnoses and age groups, with only a very limited number of resources available. This trip evolved out of a personal goal and vision of one therapist and was eventually given the name “Project Haiti”.

           Ashley Henegar works as a pediatric physical therapist on the Brain Injury and Pediatrics unit at Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Throughout her schooling, she knew she wanted to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate and hoped someday she could use her professional skills as a therapist to do so. In the summer of 2011, Ashley was introduced by a former professor to June Hanks, a PT who had left behind her career in the states to manage a rehabilitation clinic in Les Cayes, Haiti through MTI. June was in need of a full time PT to work with her in her prosthetics clinic she had started. Ashley contacted June and spoke about working with her for a short period of time in Haiti and began the process of applying to the program. 

            Ashley shared her desire to travel to Haiti with her co-workers and found many of them shared her interest in participating in a medical relief trip. With the help of MTI, Ashley planned and organized each trip and gathered sixteen volunteers who expressed interest in the project. The total cost for each volunteer is $1,500 with a total cost of approximately $25,000 to cover travel expenses, lodging, medical supplies, food, translators, transportation, and insurance for all volunteers. It is our hope that all the money will be raised through fundraising, without any volunteer having to pay out of pocket to participate in such a worthy cause.

            Throughout the next several months, Project Haiti will be asking for your support in helping us raise the funds needed to make this trip a success. We will be having events within the community, as well as fundraising within the Brooks Health System to achieve our fundraising goal. All donations of any amount are greatly appreciated. It is our hope that Project Haiti will pave the way for future opportunities in international relief work within the Brooks system in the years to come. Please keep all of these teams in your thoughts and prayers as they travel and use their skills to help those who need it the most. If you would like to continue to follow us on this journey, please continue to follow this blog! If you would like to make a donation, please make checks payable to:

Project Haiti

P.O. Box 550731

Jacksonville, FL 32255

We are extremely grateful for your support with this endeavor and look forward to discussing our experiences with you when we return. Thank you!    

Stella & Dot Jewelry Fundraiser!

Melissa Clausi, a jewelry rep from Stella & Dot has offered to donate all the proceeds she would have made off this sale to Project Haiti!! Please take a look and order yourself (or someone else) something sparkly. Go to www.stelladot.com/melissa723 and at checkout select "Project Haiti" as your hostess. Thank you Melissa for your generosity! Happy shopping everyone!!!

Cupcakes!

Valentine's Day Cupcake Sale

Tuesday the Haiti team and some of our most wonderful supporters put on their best baking hats and broke out their aprons to make their best tasting and most beautiful cupcakes to sell in support of our trip to Haiti.  We made over $1300 from all of our supporters at Brooks.  We are so thankful for all who baked and for those who purchased our delicious cupcakes!!!  We certainly have some very skilled bakers--keep an eye out for our next event.  Here are some pictures for those of you who missed it--careful, staring too long may make you hungry.

Winn Dixie Fundraiser

Today, six volunteers came out to help raise money for Project Haiti! It was an unusually cold and windy day in Jacksonville (and by cold I mean in the 60s), so props to those who braved the weather. We made $89 all together today which is not too shabby. I did learn one thing though... I was not cut out to be a salesperson! Here are some pics from today. Special thanks go out to Hannah Foster for setting up the fundraiser today and Winn-Dixie for letting us collect donations outside their store. Thanks to all the volunteers that came out: Ola Iyewarun, Valdora Martelli, Callie Squires, Megan Schneider, and Ali D'Alessandro.... and Ozzie and Will Watson who were there for moral support. Good job team :)

-Ashley

This blog was started to share with others the story of sixteen therapists and their journey to Les Cayes, Haiti through the organization Medical Teams International. We will be writing about our fundraising efforts prior to the trip, our experiences while we are in Haiti, and the impact the trip made on our lives after we return. The following therapists are the volunteers who have sacrificed their time for this amazing project and are paving the way for future opportunities for international mission work within the Brooks Rehab system:

Ashley Henegar, PT                   Ola Iyewarun, PT                   Sarah Olsen, OT
Hannah Foster, PT                     Valdora Martelli, PT               Greg Mitchell, PTA
Callie Squires, OT                      Nicole Morfis, OT                  Allie Wehunt, PT
Michael Braun, OT                    Anita Kari, PT                        Alison D'Alessandro, PT

                                                   Jenny Schinke, PT
                                                   Megan Schneider, OT
                                                   Geoff Willard, PT
                                                   JoAnn Wiley, PTA

Thank you for taking the time to read and support us through your thoughts and prayers!

-Ashley