By Bonnie Adams, Managing Editor
Region – On Jan 12, 2010, the Caribbean country of Haiti was rocked by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Nearly 200,000 lost their lives on that tragic date, including a young Rutland woman, Britney Gengel, who was participating in a service mission through her college.
Since then, her family has coped with their grief by actively pursuing Britney’s last wish – to open an orphanage in that country. At the Feb. 9 meeting of the Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business Forward Females (BFF) meeting, Britney’s mother Cherylann spoke about her daughter and how the organization formed in her memory, Be Like Brit (BLB), has kept her beloved daughter’s memory alive.
Gengel noted that her daughter was “just a regular kid, who loved her family and her life. She had a great spirit and always believed in helping people be the best they could be.
“Her heart was touched in Haiti – she loved [the people there] but was heartbroken about what they were going through,” she added.
Just hours before the earthquake Britney sent her mother a text: “They love us so much and everyone is so happy. They love what they have and they work so hard to get nowhere, yet they are all so appreciative. I want to move here and start an orphanage myself.”
After Britney’s death, Cherylann and her husband Len, established the Be Like Brit Foundation, Inc., with the goal of building an orphanage in Grand Goave, Haiti. Two years later, that goal was accomplished when they built a 19,000-square-foot earthquake-proof orphanage, in the shape of a “B.” Now the building is home to 33 boys and 33 girls – the number, Gengel said, represents the number of days between the earthquake and when Britney’s body was found. The children are mainly between the ages of 3-8 although siblings are also welcomed into the orphanage as well.
“This is not an institution – this is a home,” she said. “Our goal is to raise the next generation of Haiti’s leaders.
Volunteers, called “Britsionarys,” have also built 48 houses and helped to bring clean water to local residents, Gengel said. The organization plans to build a cistern, she added, to help locals collect more water and eventually grow their own food. They also hope to expand medical services to those who live outside of the orphanage. Although neither Cherylann nor Len receive a salary – 100 percent of the money raised goes toward the foundation – the organization does employ 100 Haitians, Gengel said.
There are many ways to help BLB, Gengel said, including the option of sponsoring a child for $33 a month. Hundreds of individuals and groups have journeyed to Haiti to volunteer at the orphanage. And on the website www.belikebrit.org there are many items on a wish list that are always needed, which are then taken to Haiti by volunteers.
The Gengels also wrote a book documenting their story, “Heartache and Hope in Haiti,” which can be purchased on the website or on Amazon.
For more information on BFF, visit corridornine.org.