Haiti Event a Success!
An enthusiastic crowd gathered at First Parish on May 21st, 2010 to demonstrate their support for the people of Haiti. The program included a reading by Haitian poet, Barbara Paul-Emile of Berlin and a talk about the history of Haiti by her husband, Serge Paul-Emile. Haitian activist, Alix Cantave, was the featured speaker. His description of relief efforts by the international relief organizations pulled no punches as he described the failures of past efforts and plans to do better in the future by focusing efforts on building the capacity of local Haitian institutions.
As part of the program, the Doirin-Fanfan family gave a acapella rendition of
“Haiti ou ta besywen pe” (Haiti Be Not Afraid). Afterwards, guests sampled Haitian foods and cake provided by volunteers and the Doirin-Fanfan family. The event raised over $1,500 to support Haitian relief efforts.
Calendar
Gary will lead a book discussion group starting January 8 from 7:00-8:30 pm in the Brackett Room using Huston Smith's classic The World's Religions, an eight week tour of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Primal Traditions. The class is free and open to the public, but you might want to add this book to your Christmas list if you want to participate. Please note: we will be using the non-illustrated version of Smith's book. The pictures are nice, but the text is much abbreviated in the illustrated edition.