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(123) 456 7890 1234 Main St. Anytown www.cruiseshipcenters.ca/anytown Aeroplan is a registered trademark of Aeroplan Canada Inc. Your experience begins at Expedia CruiseShipCenters. (905) 338-8083 2460 Neyagawa Blvd., Oakville www.cruiseshipcenters.ca/oakville email: oakville@cruiseshipcenters.com Tico ON Reg.# 4346425 Please join us for a wonderful evening with Experience sailing along beautiful European waterways onboard your fl oating boutique hotel with fabulous itineraries. We will show you all that River Cruising has to offer. TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT PLEASE RSVP TO: Come to find an entirely new way to see the old world - River Cruising Oct 14th at 7:30 pm - Glen Abbey Golf Club 15 W ednesday , O ctober 6, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF After spending more than six months in Haiti, LeeAnn Verbeek has been home to rest, visit friends and fundraise. But shes soon going back. After her few weeks of sojourn from missionary work is over, she will be heading right back to work at the Mission of Hope Haiti in the impoverished nations capital Port- au-Prince, which suffered a devastat- ing earthquake on Jan. 12. Im just visiting friends, going out for lunch, dinner, movies, just seeing as many people as possible, she said. Verbeek is back in Oakville for a few weeks after having arrived back here on Thursday, Sept. 16. The first weekend after her return, she held a fundraising party at Hopedale Bowl which drew more than a 100 guests. It was really good, Verbeek said. I was really happy with how it turned out and it was really good to see everyone who came out. The event attracted friends and relatives as well as the people and their families who served with her in Haiti. The event managed to raise $2,500, which Verbeek will use to pay for her living expenses while she stays in Haiti for another year. The money pays for items such as food, rent and other necessities. The 21-year-old originally planned to travel to Haiti well before the massive Jan. 12 earth- quake, where she would become a teaching assistant and nanny for Haitian twins adopted by Cheryl and Laurens van der Mark. Cheryl previously owned a chiropractic service in Oakville and was Verbeeks employer at the time. The van der Marks were already doing missionary work in Haiti before the earthquake happened. Verbeek had her tickets ready to go; however, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the Caribbean country and flights in and out of Haiti were cancelled. With the pas- senger flight route closed, Verbeek boarded a cargo plane 17 days after the quake with a group of paramedics and nurses and flew to Haiti. There she joined the van der Marks. I always thought Id go down and visit her and then she put up a listing on her blog to come assist teaching her newly adopted twins, Verbeek said. I wasnt sure how I felt about going. I just graduated and wasnt in the field I graduated from. I just felt called to go and got the doors open to me. I just fell in love with it there and ended up staying longer. The teaching assistant commit- ment was only until the end of June, but a month prior to that date Verbeek felt her time in Haiti was not over and looked to fill another need with Mission of Hope. The Sheridan College travel and tourism graduate found a role more suited to her studies. She became Mission of Hopes co-ordinator for teams and groups coming to Haiti to help rebuild the nation. She ensures the travellers have a place to sleep and can get to where they need to be. She does things such as housing arrangements, co-ordinates the guesthouse, meals and merchandise. Verbeek committed to stay until the end of July 2011. She has seen some hardships while staying in Haiti. One example she gave was about a malnourished two-year-old boy, who was taken to the MOH clinic. Doctors told his mother he might have mus- cular dystrophy. They asked the woman to return with the child on the next Monday. When the woman left, MOH workers found that the two-year-old boy was left behind under a bench, likely, Verbeek said, because the woman was scared what such a con- dition would mean to her. Hes now staying at the MOH orphanage. Im just thankful Mission of Hope was there to help him and pray we can find a place he can be cared for and that hell just strive and be successful and get healthy. Verbeek said there are few options for someone in the boys situation in Haiti. Verbeek returns to Haiti this week. To learn more about her work in Haiti, visit her blog at www.leean- ninhaiti.blogspot.com. Oakville resident cant turn away from helping in Haiti LeeAnn Verbeek