Schools of the Sacred Heart efforts for Haiti

Schools of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco - Haiti Relief

Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco parent Farah Makras (Tyler, Stuart Hall-4; Kameron, Stuart Hall-2; and Lyla, Convent-K) had been scheduled to visit Haiti at the end of January to assist a friend who worked with orphaned children. In the days that followed the devastating January 12 earthquake there, Farah sent an e-mail to the community with an offer to take supplies when she went; a few days later, her flight was indefinitely canceled, but she nonetheless offered to organize the School’s relief efforts. She worked through House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and the Coast Guard to mobilize donations of clothing and medical supplies to ship to Haiti.

Within a week, she had enough donations from the community to fill two warehouse spaces, and a legion of students volunteering on the weekends to sort and pack the supplies. Farah was excited to provide more than 1000 boxes of help in the first shipment. “The amount and quality of donations has blown us all away,” she said, “and we are so grateful to see everyone coming together to help such an amazing cause.”

Students began taking the inititative to raise money as well. Stuart Hall High School junior Elliot Boschwitz approached service coordinator Ray O'Connor and asked if he could organize a bake sale and raffle to raise money for the Red Cross. In less than a week, the sale raised more than $1100 for the Red Cross, raffling off Red Cross emergency kits—and renewing the conversation of earthquake preparedness in an area that is itself prone to seismic unsettling.

But it wasn’t just the older students who wanted to contribute. At the elementary schools, first grade girls held a two-day bookmark sale that raised $374 with inventory made in the classrooms, and the boys sold cookies at lunch, with proceeds going toward purchasing more plastic bins for shipping supplies with the Coast Guard.

The ongoing challenge will be in collecting large plastic bins with lids for the shipments, Farah said. “We have received several first-hand reports from people who have been ‘on the ground’ and our prayers and support continue to be critically important.”