Artist Designs Handmade Christmas Cards from Haiti for Charity
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Marcelin held her baby in her lap as she carefully assembled Banana Bark cards. | |
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COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Sept. 24, 2013) – Seated at a weathered school desk under a tree in Haiti, a young man shaves banana bark. A rooster crows in the yard as the shaved curls twist and fall to the ground. The man is one of hundreds of workers employed through Food For The Poor’s Banana Bark Program, to help impoverished Haitians earn an income.
Each year, Food For The Poor seeks fresh designs for its individually handcrafted Banana Bark cards. This year’s Christmas cards are adorned with the die-cut pieces of dried banana bark that read: Hope, Love, Joy, Peace and Noel.
Last year, the charity reached out to a local artist who agreed to provide the artwork for free. Retired clinical laboratory director Patricia Carroll said these powerful words inspired the card designs she painted at her home in Jupiter, Fla.
“I have seen the work Food For The Poor does, and wanted to do whatever I could to help,” said Carroll, who is the mother of a Food For The Poor staff member. “I was so grateful to have this opportunity. This is one of the best things I have done.”
The newly designed 2013 Christmas and all-occasion cards contains 10 cards and envelopes per pack. Orders can be made by calling 1-866-303-3877 or online at www.FoodForThePoor.org/bananabark.
When you order handcrafted Banana Bark cards, you offer poor families in Haiti the means to feed their children and change their lives.
One of Food For The Poor’s staff photographers interviewed Marcelin and her family earlier this year about the Banana Bark Program. Marcelin has worked in the program since 1995. In a video about the Banana Bark Program, Marcelin holds a young child in her lap, as she generously applies glue to the die-cut word “Hope.”
“If we don’t have the cards, we don’t have the money,” said Othon, Marcelin’s husband. “We would be penniless.”
This helps us to pay for school, and helps us to buy food and clothes,” said Marcelin, a mother of three. “I feel good to have this opportunity.”
Carroll’s favorite design is of the baby Jesus, asleep on a bed of hay in the manger. Her adopted granddaughter, Isabel Ruby, was her inspiration for this painting. Carroll relocated from Waterville, Ohio, to South Florida to support her daughter’s decision to adopt Isabel.
“It was like a miracle,” said Carroll. “The adoption process took only six weeks. She is a joy.”
Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Jennifer Leigh Oates
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]