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Updated: 9:08 PM Mar 15, 2010
SU Students and Faculty Return From Haiti
Some Shenandoah University Students and Faculty are back in Winchester, talking about their spring break trip to Haiti. They are sharing the stories of the Haitian people - who touched their lives.
Posted: 5:50 PM Mar 15, 2010Reporter: Lauren McKay Email Address: lauren.mckay@tv3winchester.com |
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Some Shenandoah University Students and Faculty are back in Winchester, talking about their spring break trip to Haiti. They are sharing the stories of the Haitian people - who touched their lives.
"This is definitely a spring break, I will never forget," says Shenandoah University Senior Cody Penwell. Penwell is overwhelmed with what he witnessed in Haiti. "There's still rubble covering most roads that you can't drive through. I maybe saw one or two actual cleanup crews," says Penwell.
Penwell captured 20 hours of footage from the ground. There were moments, like seeing one of his fellow students overcome with emotion, that made him realize the aftershocks from the earthquake come in many forms.
Shenandoah University Students Cindy and Jerry Saintfort are from Haiti. They returned home to see their family for the first time since the January quake. Seeing the reunion touched Shenandoah University President Tracy Fitzsimmons. "It was an incredibly beautiful moment to see them reunited with their parents," says Fitzsimmons.
Fitzsimmons says every person in Haiti has an earthquake story. Many of them want to tell their stories, but don't because they don't want to burden someone who has story of their own. "Hearing from the mother what it was like that she was in the kitchen, her two year old daughter was in the living room and their house collapsed and they were buried in the rubble and she couldn't hear her daughter. She was buried for nine hours and didn't have any idea if her daughter was dead or alive. After 14 hours they did find the daughter upside down, covered in white dust, and unconscious, but alive and she lived," says Fitzsimmons.
Those who lived are doing so in fear, that another earthquake could hit at any moment. "They saw buildings came down on people, they narrowly escaped with their own lives," says Fitzsimmons.
Shenandoah University is reaching out to a school devastated by the quake. "The first time we went inside the school that we were going to help rebuild, they said no one had been in there in two month. They said that the fact that we went in, gave them the strength to go in the building," says Penwell.
Students and faculty from SU will return to Haiti and do what they can to help rebuild. "Those were five amazing, unforgettable days in Haiti that I think will always sort of feed my soul," says Fitzsimmons.
Shenandoah University is raising funds to help the school rebuild. If you would like to make a donation, send it to SU, payable to Shenandoah University Haiti School.
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