Feb. 20 concert will help out Haiti orphans

Pat Freebury, a local woman who experienced the earthquake in Haiti, has organized a benefit concert with all proceeds going to assist two orphanages and refugees in Pignon, Haiti.

The concert is 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Glacier High School Performance Hall.

The show features Rob Quist and Jack Gladstone, House of Quist, Blest, Glacier High School Echoes and Flathead High School Choral-aires.

Other soloists donating their talent are singers Amanda Caldwell, Steve Carlson and Carlene Prince and pianist Jerry Fletcher. Tickets at the door are $10 or a donation and food bank item.

According to Freebury, the need has grown at the Haiti Mercy Mission and Haiti Home of Hope orphanages since she left.

“They’re both feeding refugees and they are both taking in more orphans,” she said.

Since the earthquake, about 11,000 people from Port-au-Prince looking for food and shelter have flooded into the more rural Pignon area.

Haiti Mercy Mission recently had 62 orphans and 10 adult refugees living on its grounds.

According to Freebury, the nondenominational Christian organization shares supplies with others outside the compound. “They deliver food at night to other refugees,” she said. “They use the church as an outlet to share food but they don’t have much left.”

She said that the Haiti Home of Hope was in need of formula. Its Web site says that monetary donations make the greatest impact. Since supplies from Missionary Flights International have slowed to a trickle, they must purchase goods in Cap Haitien where prices have drastically increased.

Civil unrest has added to the challenges. Freebury said that some supply flights of food into Pignon airport next to Haiti Mercy Mission were confiscated by mobs.

United Nations peacekeepers have been ineffective in controlling the large numbers of desperate people.

“It’s right across the street from the orphanage but it’s too dangerous for them to meet the planes,” Freebury said.

Conditions on the ground tend to change daily as the relief efforts continue.

Freebury, 71, was volunteering at Haiti Mercy Mission in Pignon when the earthquake struck. She and her family sponsor three orphans with monthly financial support.

Many Inter Lake readers followed her story as she sent a few e-mails before making a frightening exit over land in the back of a pickup to Cap Haitien. From there, she traveled by bus to the Dominican Republic and from there she flew back to the United States.

Once she reached home, Freebury asked for help organizing a benefit for the Haiti Mercy Mission orphanage as well as Haiti Home of Hope funded by the Red Bridge Baptist Church and run by the Bill Campbell family.

Freebury said she received an immediate response.

“By 8 the next morning, Cathy Relf of Whitefish called me,” Freebury said. “She put on a fundraiser for Shepherd’s Hand Clinic.”

More people called, volunteering their talents. A program materialized that begins with Freebury giving a brief presentation about her experience with the Haiti orphanages and refugees.

“Rob Quist and Jack Gladstone are going to each sing as well as perform together,” she said.

The program includes enough solos and groups to appeal to both younger and older audiences.

Quist’s musical son and daughter, Guthrie and Halladay, perform their vintage hard rock sound as House of Quist. The two also sing their own mellower melodies.

Blest, a Christian quartet, and Christian singer Caldwell will perform two numbers and Carlson will performs “I Will Lift My Eyes.” Prince of KALS will perform a solo with “I See You.”

Fletcher plans to play “God Bless Us All.”

Freebury said the show begins to wrap up with a dynamic joint performance of “Requiem” by Glacier High School’s Glacier Echoes and Flathead High School’s Choral-aires. The women of Glacier Echoes then sing “One Voice” followed by the men of the Choral-aires performing “The Prayer of the Children.”

The benefit closes with Freebury’s favorite song — “It is Well with My Soul” — which the children at the Haiti Mercy Mission Orphanage would sing to her in their native language.

“We’re going to sing it in English and Creole,” she said.

People who would like more information may call Freebury at 752-1153. Tickets are not available in advance.

For more about the two orphanages, consult www.haitimercymission.com and haitihomeofhope.org.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.