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Hope for Haiti

Posted by CaribShout on July 9, 2009 at 10:54pm

Deborah and Leo Duncam, along with their adopted daughters Taphatna, 12, and Camasiz, 11, started their Hope for Haiti walk-a-thon on Friday. The Duncans are raising donations for Feed the Children and FIDA. Deborah Duncan and her kids went for a walk one Friday morning and, six days later, arrived in Hope having raised $6,000 for development efforts in Haiti. Dubbed To Hope for Haiti, the walk-a-thon kicked off at a celebration of the Coquitlam Public Library's City Centre branch on June 19 and featured cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable oil. Haiti's poorest families make and eat similar cookies and, while Duncan didn't expect anyone here to eat them, they proved a poignant symbol for the conditions facing Haitians. The kick-off event, attended by about 100 people, raised $650, Duncan said. When it was finished Duncan and her kids, Leo and adopted daughters Taphatna, 12, and Camaciz, 11 (both were born in Haiti), started walking. They made it to Port Coquitlam, a distance of nearly five kilometres and the next day they walked from Maple Ridge to Ruskin, a trek of nearly nine kilometres. Subsequent stops included Deroche, Lake Errock, Agassiz and, on June 24, Hope. In total the family walked about 60 km. "We averaged 15 km per day, through one very hot day, one soaking wet day and four overcast, cool days which were perfect for walking," Duncan said in an email. Something that kept everyone going was the tremendous amount of support, from people joining them on the walk and welcoming them in their hometowns. Duncan is a children's librarian at Coquitlam's Poirier library and there were walk-a-thon receptions at the Maple Ridge and Hope libraries. They were also joined by Rhian Piprell, director of the Coquitlam Public Library, and Maureen Woods, director of the Fraser Valley Regional Libraries, as well as two library patrons who have attended Duncan's story times for several years and even an old high school classmate from the 1960s. In Hope, teacher Kathy Koopman, who was raised in Haiti by her missionary parents, came for a visit with $150 her class had raised. "As for what happens next, we are thinking of a variety of projects for the future," Duncan said, adding, "We may do the walk again, or change to a completely different project. We will definitely continue fundraising for Haiti." Duncan had hoped to raise $2,000 for Feed the Children and FIDA to support literacy, medical clinics, agricultural training and orphanages in Haiti, which has been hit hard by tropical storms recently. For more information about the walk, visit www.tohopeforhaiti.ca

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