Fundraiser in memory of quake victim
Posted Feb 10, 2010 01:28:53 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Dignitaries and community leaders gathered in Waterloo to honour the memory and sacrifice of an Elmira nurse who died in the devastation of the Haiti earthquake.
A fundraising breakfast in memory of Yvonne Martin brought in some $10,000 for the EMCC, the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada.
That’s the church Martin was working with when she died in the earthquake hours after arriving in Haiti on January 12.
Hespeler resident Betsy Wall, Executive Director of FIDA, the Foundation for International Development Assistance, (www.fida-pch.org) spoke at the event of her 40 years of experience working in and with Haiti.
Wall says Martin died when the guesthouse she was staying in at her parents’ property collapsed.
She adds, while she did not know Martin personally, she knew her to be an extremely sensitive person with a gift of compassion.
For her own experience, Wall says the most shocking aspects of the earthquake were the absence of emergency sirens when the ground stopped shaking, and the extreme feeling of helplessness.
The breakfast event concluded with a moment of silence for Martin.
The event at RIM Park in Waterloo was hosted by the Waterloo and Wellington Registered Nurses’ Association.
