In areas plagued by poverty, live shopkeepers, seamstresses and bakers are emerging success stories made possible by the Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee and Food For The Poor.
Stories of success from the Boca Grande Friendship Villages of Pierre Payen and Michaud, Haiti, include: ??
Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee success story No. 6
Article Photos
Co-chairs Ben and Louise Scott, far left, welcome Haiti residents to their new home courtesy of the Boca Grande group, which will update it haitian rescue efforts tonight at the Boca Grande Beach Club.
Sonia: An active, upbeat and courageous woman with a constant smile, Sonia has grown children and recently adopted young ones who were poor and needed a caretaker. ??
After the Boca Grande community provided a beautiful new home for this worthy woman, she saved all the usable scraps from her old shack when it was dismantled to set up a small shop for her cooking business. ??
Sonia received a small donation to start a business selling vegetables on the sidewalk and also cooking a cornmeal breakfast for school children.
Fact Box
To Go
Who: Co-chairs Ben and Louise Scott
What: Boca Grande Committee at a reception
When: 6 p.m. Feb. 21
Where: Gasparilla Inn Beach Club, 445 Gilchrist Ave.
Why: Plans will be revealed for Boca Grande Friendship Village III in Manneville, Haiti
Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee
Committee members include: Co-chairs Ben and Louise Scott; the Revs. Gary Beatty, Brian Brightly, Jerome Carosella and Michelle Robertshaw; George and Lois Castrucci; Patricia Chapman; Ray and Iliene Corcoran; Charlie and Florita Field; Evelyn Finnegan; Lou and Corie Fusz; Stephen and Susan Jansen; Tom and Nancy Lorden; Colvin and Madelaine McCrady; Peter and Elsa Soderberg; and Sue and Randy Eddy.
Boca Grande supporters have supplied bakery materials to enable her to use the scraps from her old home to build a little bread shop. The shop is not a thing of beauty, but Sonia is grateful for this new opportunity, and the villagers are grateful that they no longer have to go buy bread an hour away.
Sonia is proud of the service she provides. Other ladies told Sonia it would be too hard to start a bread making business. They warned her it would be too difficult to be available all day and wait for customers. She has proved her detractors wrong by making her business work.
