Sunday, 1.17.10

(update, Sunday, 1.17.10 - 4.35 p.m.)

Jean-Elie Millien, Luc Louisgene, Danelie Millien, & Christina Millien-Kruzshak came to OSA today for both the 8 & 10 o'clock services. It was very good for OSA parishioners to see and hear from them. At the end of the day, $6,200 was received, this in addition to $2,100 that arrived on Friday. We also have pledges in excess of $6,000. Our in-hand total is $8,300. Thanks so much to all those who gave so generously. This is a fantastic start ... and just from OSA. We look forward to receiving contributions from our partner churches. Please send "Old St. Andrew's" checks or combined checks to OSA's address found on this website.

The Metropolitan Learning Center, who adopted a class at Good Samaritan last fall, has raised almost $1,000. They are also selling blue rubber bracelets for $3 each. The bracelets are embossed with EBS Haiti & Help Stop Poverty. This a good example of a grass roots effort by high school kids who are aware and who care passionately about helping the people of Haiti. Contact Caryn Stedman (cstedman@mlc.crec.org) to learn more. THANK YOU MLC!

A conference call at Noon brought together many of the people actively organizing the Good Samaritan Rebuilding project. Several tasks were identified and assigned for action to people able to accomplish them

1. Luc is putting together a FaceBook place for us to stay in touch with each other.

2. Some folks from Stamford are buying large rolling duffle bags for transporting medical supplies to Haiti. Two were donated by Jackie & Sue O'Clair to carry the medical supplies collected at OSA this morning.

3. The Stamford team is also looking into purchasing water purification systems (either or both the pill kind or small, personal mechanical systems).

4. I am working with an OSA parishioner, Coulette Lioce, on administrative, scheduling, & logistics coordination. We agreed that each partner church would provide an Excel spreadsheet of volunteers--names, email addresses, cell phone numbers, snail mail addresses, Church or organization, and skill set (construction, care-giver, etc.).

5. We agreed not to collect any more Medical Supplies "in kind". Rather, please send checks to Old St. Andrew's. Once we know better what is most needed, we will use the money to buy them.

6. Gus at St. John's, Stamford, agreed to be our conference call Master.

7. We need Frequent Flier Miles and points. We'll try to have a system in place to collect them by Monday night.

Channel 3 never showed up. They were a side-show anyway. Our challenge is to keep our eye on the ball: the Good Samaritan Rebuilding project. We need to do the very best we can there. Nobody else is going to do anything about the School except us. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Thank you ALL!

Jean-Elie Millien & Luc Louisgene

(update, Sunday, 1.17.10 - 5.30 a.m.)

Just got a call from Channel 3 that they will not be setting up at OSA this morning because of a breaking news story in New Haven (a police officer was shot). Disappointing but our focus continues to be on Haiti and getting relief to the community surrounding Good Samaritan School. More partners joining our effort--Trinity, Newtown.