Palm Beach Donors to Raise Hope for Haitian Families
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Sept. 7, 2016) Food For The Poor is sponsoring a family friendly day of fun on the water to raise funds to give hope to desperate families in need of safe, secure shelter in Haiti.
The inaugural Hope Floats Fishing Tournament & Docktail Party will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, at the Sailfish Club of Florida, 1338 N. Lake Way, Palm Beach, Fla.
Guests will enjoy a barbecue and dessert buffet, with a separate buffet for children under 12. Families can participate in a children’s fishing tournament on the club’s docks. Children will have pledge cards to raise money based on how many inches of fish they catch. Later in the day, the pool will be turned into a “dive-in” theater where the children can float and watch a movie.
Proceeds will go toward building homes in Alpha Village, Haiti.
The village, located on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, is a community situated between the sea and a garbage dump. The area is overcrowded with families who are living in shacks with no access to clean water or sanitation. The stench of rotting garbage makes day-to-day living very difficult.
Committee members Chrissie and Matt Ferguson traveled with Food For The Poor to Haiti in August. It was Chrissie’s second mission trip and Matt’s first.
On their recent journey, Chrissie brought photos of the children of Alpha Village she had taken on her first trip. They were overjoyed to see the photos.
“It was like watching kids on Christmas morning,” said Chrissie Ferguson. “Food For The Poor is bringing so much hope to them and I just think things will change for them.”
The Fergusons weren’t sure if they would go on the mission after their home in the Georgia mountains was struck by lightning and caught fire just days before their trip to Haiti. But they made the journey and said they were blessed by what they saw.
“While we lost part of our home, we will rebuild what was damaged. The people of Haiti don’t know if they will ever build a first home, and I wanted to be a part of bringing that hope to them,” said Chrissie Ferguson. “I couldn’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to share faith, hope and love with our friends in Haiti.”
Committee member Amy Royster Bridger of West Palm Beach traveled to Haiti twice last year and witnessed firsthand the hope that Food For The Poor brings to destitute families.
On her first trip to Haiti last summer, she walked through a slum and peeked through a smelly, dilapidated shack made of trash to find three small children huddled together alone. Their father had died and their mother had gone to the hospital.
“These children’s faces were nearly frozen, their bodies were limp. There was a fear that I had certainly not seen in my own children. Food For The Poor promised to look after them,” Bridger said.
In November, when Bridger returned to Haiti, she saw the children and their mother transformed as they celebrated the inauguration of a new village built by the charity.
“What had been a miserable slum just a few months before, where children were wading barefoot in puddles of human waste, was now a neat village of brightly colored homes,” Bridger said. “It was one of the most exciting things I had ever seen.”
To watch a video of the group’s trip, go to www.FoodForThePoor.org/journeytohaiti.
Generous donors have a wonderful opportunity to provide the same hope for families in Alpha Village.
Tickets for Hope Floats are $125 for one adult; $250 for a couple; $320 for a family of two adults and two children under 12; and $50 for additional children under 12.
Attire is Palm Beach casual with no blue denim.
For more information on Hope Floats, call Marni Wyman at 888-404-4248 or email at [email protected].
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor primarily 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.
Michael Turnbell
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]