Mary Ann Schlegel saw first hand the devastation in Haiti following the earthquake on Jan. 12. The former Mount Forest area resident was in the country as part of a mission team from the Sauble Christian Fellowship Church when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the country. Now safely back home her voice is choked with tears as she describes the experience, the injuries, death and destruction.
She had just left the medical clinic at the Mission of Hope compound, which also includes an orphanage, and gone back to her room to shower before dinner. She and her roommate were relaxing on their beds when they “felt the house shake a little”.
“I thought it was thunder,” Mrs. Schlegel said, “but all of a sudden the room started to move more and more. People were screaming… glass started to break, lights started to fall, the staircase was moving… people were yelling to get away, get out of the building, so we did and we just stood there in shock. We could not believe what was happening.”
It was Mrs. Schlegel’s first mission trip to the country and she said she never imagined something like this would happen. The Sauble Christian Fellowship Church has been involved with the Mission of Hope for a number of years, with church members making annual trips to Haiti.
“I do want to return to Haiti,” she says, “But it going to take some time for me to work through the process of what has happened. I want to go back though.”
Mrs. Schlegel went to Haiti with the intention of doing whatever was needed of her whether it was helping with the orphans, cooking for the mission group or helping with construction projects. She does not have a medical background but, when the earthquake happened, the medical team at Mission of Hope called everyone into service.  Mrs. Schlegel worked 24 hours straight,
“We took the people in, got them comfortable, saw what their needs were and let the doctors and nurses know,” she said. “People had gashes in their heads that were down to their skulls, legs and arms were broken and the gashes on their bodies were unbelievable.”
She says she will always remember the sounds as well – “you could hear people in the hills singing (because of their strong faith in God), then crying, then singing. You could hear the voices of the Haitians in the distance.”
A person that she had met gave her a letter to bring back to Canada with her in which he wrote “Please help me in your prayers. Don’t forget me when you go to Canada.”?Mrs. Schlegel is very proud that her daughter, Andrea Parsons, owner and administrator of the Saugeen Valley Nursing Center in Mount Forest, has announced the nursing center will match donations for Haitian relief up to $2,000. Since the story appeared in last week’s Confederate, cheques made out to the Mennonite Central Committee (for Haitian relief) have been pouring in.
“I am always humbled by the great community spirit that Mount Forest has,” Mrs. Parsons said on Monday. “To date we have raised $1,600. With SVNC matching that’s $3,200, with government matching that $6,400.”
As a result of that effort young Emilie Moyer, whose mother is director of resident care at SVNC, decided to get her classmates at Victoria Cross Public School involved in raising funds.  The school has taken her suggestion to another level – on Friday all the students at Victoria Cross  are being urged to pay $1 to wear their hats in class. All money raised in the Hats for Haiti initiative will be matched by SVNC as well.