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HOLDEN, Mass. — Two years after their school was destroyed in the earthquake, children in a small mountain village 20 miles east of Port au Prince in Haiti can now enjoy going to school in a brand new building, thanks to the dedicated efforts of members of the Wachusett Area Rotary.

The devastation of the January 10, 2010 earthquake crumbled buildings and whole neighborhoods as if they were stacked houses of cards, leaving a terrible death toll in its wake.

While far from the epicenter of the disaster, the Wachusett area itself was not left untouched by the tragedy, and the Rotary's project to help rebuild the school was one of the many local efforts that demonstrated the community's depth of compassion for people living over 1,600 miles away.

"When you read the paper and see devastation like this, you get overwhelmed with helplessness, and I think being part of an international organization like [the Rotary] can allow you to focus quickly without a lot of administrative bureaucracy and just do something," said Rotarian Joe Sullivan.

While international aid organizations were sweeping in and helping more populated areas like Port au Prince, small villages like the one near Leogane fell between the cracks, and the Rotary saw an opportunity to provide help.

The effort was a continuation of 35 years of active involvement in the Haiti by Rotary International, and because the organization works on a person to person, club to club system, local chapters like the Wachusett Area Rotary have been able to respond to worldwide calls for need with focused and effective aid and projects.

While this project was a big undertaking for a relatively small club of around 30 members, the rotary was determined to raise enough funds to help rebuild the school.

Taking swift action after the earthquake, the Rotary hosted Hearts for Haiti, a dinner dance fundraiser that helped bring in over $16,000 through ticket sales and donations from area residents in just one night.

Furthermore, the Rotary Club then contributed $10,000 in additional funds from savings of the club that had been built up over the last 40 plus years.

"It was a rainy day fund, and literally in Haiti it was as rainy a day as they get, so we decided to spend $10,000 out of that fund," said Jim Cahn, president of the Wachusett Area Rotary.

Together, the funds allowed the project to go forward.

The construction itself was not an easy feat, troubled by the monsoon season and dangers of Typhoid Fever, as well as the difficulty in getting materials up the mountain.

Yet cinder block by cinder block, a team of 47 Haitians helped bring the project to completion, trudging through 40 minutes of hard terrain with the heavy materials, digging a foundation out of the side of a mountain, and mixing and making concrete on site.

The building also has a solar panel on its roof that not only provides power, and its walls were reinforced with rebar and concrete in order to make it more earthquake proof.

The project, Sullivan explained, also created a temporary economy as the workers were able to build their own school for their children, while receiving a healthy days pay to bring back to their families at the end of the day. 

Along the way, Rotary members received progress reports and photos of the work being completed.

Then, in September of last year, school was open for the first time since the earthquake.

The school could once again become an important place in the village where children — often the most vulnerable members of the community — could enjoy a safe environment and have at least one square meal per day.

"A school is an important generator of community spirit," said Sullivan, explaining that as Wachusett schools are tied in with the lives of local residents, the Chateau Gagnard school would also be a place for the children to identify with where they live.

"It's a safe-haven for the children," Cahn added.

So far, 350 children now go to the school, and that number is growing.

Children who had gone to other schools that were also destroyed now walk sometimes a few hours a day to attend this one, which is larger and has more classrooms than the one that was lost.

"We're very proud of it at our club for sure," said Cahn. "Although we raised the money up here, we didn't go down there with a bunch of contractors and equipment from the United States and build them a building and hand them a set of keys, we gave them the means to build it themselves. So the people in the community, the civic leaders, the school leaders — they took that into their own hands with our funding and put people to work. It meant jobs during the construction, and it also meant pride and ownership after the completion of the school, because they did it with their own hands."

While the project in Haiti is part of the Rotary's international involvement, the club has also been constantly engaged locally, providing scholarships for high school seniors in the Wachusett area every year, and supporting organizations like the Wachusett Food Pantry and NEADS and Coats for Kids.

"We've always got a lot going on, and the Haiti project was one of those situations when all of collectively and decided this was a time to act and a time to do something, and although there was a lot more to be done in Haiti it was our chance to do our part of it," said Cahn.