Lexington, KY - Writing letters to the people on your street asking for money or assistance might not be the best way to endear yourself to your neighbors, but for Tim Carson, on Ridgeway Road in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, his experiences have been moving, and inspirational. The fact that he's asking for help on behalf of the poorest region in the Western hemisphere probably doesn't hurt.
Carson, a retired school teacher and administrator in his early 60s, is trying to raise money for a variety of humanitarian efforts in the mountainous Bayonnais Region of central Haiti; installing a local well that the nearby villages can use for water, instead of a heavily polluted stream, is paramount. It is no coincidence a cholera "tent clinic" has been installed less than a mile downstream.
Bayonnais is about 20 miles inland, and four hours worth of traveling, from GonaÔves in northern Haiti. To call the area remote is an understatement, when a catastrophic earthquake devastated the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, less than 200 miles away, in early January 2010, word took over two weeks to reach Bayonnais, Carson said.
This April marked the fifth visit Carson had gone to the region since last July, when he first witnessed the work of Yvan Pierre and his organization, International Christian Development Mission (ICDM). Pierre, a Haitian native with a U.S. education, started ICDM to help the most impoverished regions in Haiti; the organization has built a school, which serves 628 children, in Bayonnais. On a return trip over Christmas last year, Carson remembers waking in the middle of the night with a full realization and personal understanding that he intended to devote the rest of his life to bettering the wretched condition of those sleeping in the jungle near him.
"There was something about being up here that did something to me," Carson remembers. "I'm not kidding. It shifted my way of thinking. I really feel like I'm supposed to go to this place."
Back in Lexington, Carson wanted to reach out to his neighbors to ask for help, but he didn't want to sound like a representative from a pseudo-philanthropic outfit that spends more money on advertising and marketing than lifting other people up. He started typing a heartfelt letter, retelling what he had seen and what needed to be done, and he included photos of the people in Bayonnais, as well as a self-addressed stamped envelope, in case the recipient felt inclined to respond.
"I composed this letter, and I thought about it a bunch," Carson said. "I wanted to convey to the people on this street, on this block, what I saw and what I felt - from inside me."
Carson found out something very special about his neighbors.
"This area is rich in generosity," he said. "Within two and a half weeks, between the people on my street and the people that they told, $4,000 came in. I hand-carried those things down there and we put it in a bank, and it's for the well."
Upon returning from successive visits to Haiti, Carson started writing update letters he would hand deliver to neighbors, detailing the progress that was being made on the well and the school. He met people who wanted to help, but weren't able to financially. He remembers one woman, with multiple sclerosis, who offered him hundreds of small vials of shampoo her husband had collected through the years on business trips.
"She asked, 'Do you think these people could use this stuff?' I said, 'Yeah, they can use it. That would be the greatest thing if you could give that,'" Carson said, tearing up. "This made her feel like she was worthwhile, because she can't really move. ... Yes, it helps the people of Haiti, but it also helps the people here, too, because you feel like you're doing something that's worthwhile. You're giving back to mankind. People have told me that they can't wait to get my next letter."
To accompany him and assist in efforts in Bayonnais, Carson tries to recruit professional volunteers from Lexington to go to Haiti, such as engineers, plumbers and electricians. On his last trip, Carson and three other volunteers carted 16 50-pound suitcases of material.
Along with trying to raise funds for projects, Carson has also tapped his neighbors and the rest of the Lexington community for help collecting material products in dire need in Bayonnais, such as clothing, infection-fighting ointments and antiseptics, fingernail clippers, and school supplies, as well as moral boosters, like children's toys and sporting equipment. Carson said his living room looks like a flea market about a week before his trips, as he tries to economically pack all the items.
"If I can make a difference in terms of organizing people to go there -
I am not an engineer, I'm not an electrician, I don't know about that kind of stuff, but I do know people who do know about that stuff," Carson said. "If I can cast my vision to them about what we can do as a community here, that's what I want to do. It's a joy for me."
Carson will be hosting a benefit dinner on behalf of ICDM for the clean water project as well as completing the second floor and roof of the Bayonnais school, beginning at 6:30 p.m. May 19 at Buster's Backroom & Billiards (899 Manchester St.). Musical entertainment will be provided by Trial & Error, and Carson will be showing video and photos from past trips to Haiti. Tickets are $100 per person. For more information, or to RSVP, contact Carson at (859) 396-8374 or by e-mail at timcarson10@insightbb.com.