Everyone has been horrified by the devastation dealt to Haiti over the past week. The NCC community has felt this devastation personally since 48 or 19% of our students are of Haitian origin. Our counselor, Beth Degnan, Dean Christine Guy, Principal Fr. Medina, and many of our teachers and other staff had several conversations with Haitian students to see how they and their families are doing. Most, if not all, of our Haitian students have some family members in Haiti. Many have heard that houses were lost, and unfortunately a few students did lose family members.

In response to this crisis, a group of students came to our librarian, Megan McNamara, wanting to make a difference. They immediately began to organize a bake sale to raise money for relief efforts. The sale took place during exam week January 19-22, 2010.   60 students signed up to bring in items and they realized over $500.  Faculty and staff also helped bring in items and supervise sales.

We are deeply proud of the selflessness and generosity shown by our student body in the wake of such a horrible tragedy.  Our students are doing all they can to help, and want to “pay it forward”. They wanted to ensure that anyone in the NCC community who wants to help is able to.  If you are moved to help Haiti and support our students, you may do so through Partners in Health, an organization founded in 1987 by Dr. Paul Farmer. PIH is a nonprofit focusing on delivery of quality health care in poor communities originally in Haiti, and has now expanded to Peru, Russia, Lesotho, Rwanda, and Malawi. It is able to achieve this goal through its longstanding relationship with Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. It is a world renowned organization that is involved in the heart of the crisis in Haiti. Please visit http://www.standwithhaiti.org/page/outreach/view/haitiearthquake/ncchs to donate and learn more about the situation in Haiti.