Concert to benefit Haitian earthquake victims

Help is needed for the victims of the recent Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, according to the regional director of an organization that has been working in the country for the past two decades.

A benefit concert is being organized for Jan. 29, 8 p.m. at the Fraser Auditorium, Laurentian University. Partners in the event include Laurentian University, the Rainbow District School Board, New Orleans Pizza on LaSalle Boulevard, several media partners and Mission of TEARS.

Guy Campeau, who is a special education teacher with the Rainbow District School Board, is also the regional director of Mission of TEARS, a non-profit federally registered charity that has been working in Haiti in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, since the mid 1990s.

TEARS stands for teaching, educating, advocating, resourcing and serving. He said the group is volunteer-based and has operated five orphanages, three schools and a weekly medical clinic in Haiti. Mission for TEARS also operates a shelter for the homeless in the evenings, he said.

“Two of our schools and two of our our orphanages have collapsed,” Campeau said. “Our director is fine, but we have lost two adults and seven children in the disaster. No Canadians have died at their sites.”

The aid organization is hosting 100 Haitians in the yard of its mission facility in Haiti. It was damaged but is still usable, he said.

“What is urgently needed is money for water, food, tents and fuel for our diesel truck that is transporting injured people to makeshift hospitals. This is what the benefit concert is for.”

The organization currently has enough food in Haiti for only nine days.He said in the longer term, there will be a need for funds for reconstruction.

Campeau said donations have already come into the organization’s website. “Donations over $10 are tax deductible.

There will be a table set up in the lobby of the Fraser Auditorium where people can also donate.”

Local musicians have already stepped up to help, Campeau noted. Performing will be Jeff Wiseman, Stéphane Paquette and Philip May and the Sudbury Saturday Night Orchestra — eight musicians employed by the Rainbow School Board playing vintage rhythm and blues. More are expected to join in, said Campeau.

Gerry Lougheed Jr. and Laurentian University president Dominic Giroux will be Masters of Ceremonies for the evening. An attempt is being made to have local Haitians at the event.

Admission is $20. Children 12 and under are admitted for $10. Tickets are available at Durham Natural Foods, KFM 95.5 Sudbury Radio Station, Prom Music, Guitar Clinic, Black Cat, Octave Music and at the door. For more information, visit www.missionoftears.ca.