VIRGINIA: Diocese launches 'trucks for Haiti' campaign
Episcopal News Service. February 5, 2010 [020510-02]
ENS staff
The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, responding to a request from Episcopal Relief & Development, is attempting to supply 10 small pickup trucks to the agency for its post-earthquake relief efforts in the Diocese of Haiti.
More than $85,000 has already been received towards the $175,000 goal, a diocesan news release said.
Katie Mears, Episcopal Relief & Development's program manager for USA disaster preparedness and response, contacted the Diocese of Virginia to ask for a repeat performance of a truck campaign it staged in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- this time for Haiti, according to the release.
The agency has a system to bring supplies, water, food and medicine from the Dominican Republic and the diocese there to aid the Haitian diocese's Port-au-Prince relief efforts, the release said. But many quake victims have settled in church communities in hilltop villages outside of the capital and Léogâne.
"Small and fierce" and "almost new" trucks are needed to ferry supplies to these remote areas over rough road conditions, the agency told the diocese, according to the release.
The Rev. Buck Aiken, who coordinated the Katrina truck campaign, has been charged by Virginia Bishop Shannon Johnston with responding to Episcopal Relief & Development's request.
"ERD and the Diocese of Haiti need these trucks yesterday to distribute much-needed emergency supplies," Aiken said in the release. "We hope to raise the money, buy the trucks and drive them to the port in Miami by the end of next week -- there is no time for delay."
A team of drivers hopes to leave Richmond on Feb. 11, the diocese said.
Mears said that normally Episcopal Relief & Development would simply buy the trucks in the Dominican Republic, but supply-and-demand pressures have caused the price of vehicles there to skyrocket, making it more cost effective to ship the trucks from the United States.
Initially, the trucks will be titled and insured by the Diocese of Virginia. The agency will take over in Miami, and ultimately ownership will transfer to the Diocese of Haiti for its long-term use, according to the release.
Contributions, payable to the Diocese of Virginia with "Haiti Truck Relief" in the memo line, may be sent to 110 West Franklin Street, Richmond VA 23220. The diocese also continues to collect funds for Episcopal Relief & Development in general and to assist the diocese's missionary, the Rev. Lauren Stanley, when she is able to return to Haiti. Stanley, an Episcopal Church-appointed missionary to Haiti, was home in Virginia at the time of the Jan. 12 quake. Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin has asked her to remain in the U.S. to help coordinate relief and recovery efforts, and to tell the diocese's story.
To donate to Episcopal Relief & Development click here; or call the agency at 1-800-334-7626 ext.5129; or mail a gift to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058. Please write "Haiti fund" in the memo line of all checks.