BY KAREN BOSSICK
Haitian chicken stew, Haitian bread pudding and other Haitian treats will be on the menu when the Haiti Relief Team from St. Thomas Church teams up with students and teachers from the Sun Valley Community School and Hemingway STEAM School to host a dinner fundraiser.
The buffet-style Haitian Dinner will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6, in the Big Room of the Middle School Building at Sun Valley Community School.
It will include Haitian chicken stew, rice and beans, mangoes, Haitian bread pudding and juices. And Art Dahl and Doug and Dydy Cleven will show pictures and video of their recent trip to Mirebalais, Haiti.
“They don’t have salads as we do,” said Dydy Cleven. They offered us tomatoes with a lettuce wedge with Wishbone Italian dressing. While we were there, they also tried to make mayonnaise for macaroni salad by whipping eggs.”
St. Thomas Church embarked on the Haiti Micah Project eight years ago when the Rev. Ken Brannon and Helen Morgus traveled to the Caribbean island to see how Sun Valley residents could help in the wake of the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 100,000 people and damaged or destroyed 280,000 commercial buildings and residences, including the Presidential Palace.
Brannon’s college friend Father Joseph Constant runs a home for 500 of the poorest of the poor kids there. Some of the kids were living on the streets before he took them in.
A $20,000 donation helped build a volunteer center and kitchen, said Dydy Cleven, and St. Thomas congregation has made donations to provide uniforms, medical care, food, books and school fees for the children in Constant’s care.
In April 2018 the Clevens and Dahl took toothpaste and toothbrushes provided by local dentists, including Luke Whelen, Cynthia Unger, Hillary Whipple, Wayne Spector, Brian Galbraith and Ben Franz.
Nancy Parsons Brown, who teaches middle school French at Sun Valley Community School, also regularly asks her classes if they would like to do something to raise funds for the Micah project.
“It’s so touching to see the kids,” said Cleven. “We visited the classrooms and one of the girls had the same birthday as mine so they put on a show and dance in our honor. We’re holding the dinner to make the larger community aware of the needs and given them the opportunity to help.”
Dinner tickets are $20 for youth 17 and under and $40 for adults.
For information, contact Yvonne Inman at the Sun Valley Community School, 208-622-3955, extension 138. Or, contact Dydy Cleven of the Haiti Relief Team at 208-622-6219.