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Mother Teresa holding toonie drive for earthquake victims 3 · Friday, January 15, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com Continued from page 1 and Haiti fundraising champion at the school. To date, students and staff at Mother Teresa have raised tens of thousands of dollars, which has led to the construction of several schools built through a non-profit organization called Solidarity-Haiti. Connor said despite the bleak situation in Port-au-Prince, she has received good news from her contacts in Haiti about the schools that Mother Teresa has helped build. "The schools have been built in remote, impoverished communities and luckily, so far as I know, we have the understanding that all of the schools that we've donated money to help build are quite a far distance from the epicentre of the earthquake," she said. There has been another happy report with a connection to Halton. A group called the Resurrection Dance Theatre of Haiti, consisting of youths living at a Haitian orphanage called St. Joseph's Home for Boys, came to perform at four Halton Catholic schools, including Mother Teresa, in early November. "All of the Grade 6 students in the Halton Catholic District School Board came and watched them," she said. "These are homeless boys in Haiti who live in an orphanage. We organized that so they could come and we could expose our students to more Haitian things." Halton Catholic schools have raised approximately $5,000 for Broken Wings Missions, an organization that raises money for Haitian orphanages, including St. Joseph's. Connor said she received news from her contacts in Haiti that the earthquake levelled the orphanage. However, in what can only be called a miracle, no one was killed. "We were notified yesterday (Wednesday) that their orphanage was completely demolished and is now a pile of rubble since it was closer to Port-au-Prince, which was devastating news," she said. "But luckily, all of the boys who live there, because it happened at five o'clock in the evening, were out playing and were about to be called in for dinner. Luckily, most of them were outside when the building collapsed. One boy was inside, but they were able to save him and he is now next door at a first aid centre. Supposedly he was hurt pretty badly, but he is going to be fine." Mother Teresa held a short prayer service at the school for the people of Haiti on Wednesday morning. Connor said teachers and other school staff will be working with students to help them understand what has happened. "Right now the teachers are trying to discuss it, but next week, we will be discussing (with the students) what has happened and the enormity of it," she said. The school community at Mother Teresa has already mobilized and organized a fundraiser. "We want to raise funds to send down to help buy blankets, food or water, or whatever is needed for the relief efforts that are going on down there," Connor said. "We want to get immediate aid down there to help with the essentials." Students will be asked to bring in one or several toonies, whatever their family can spare, by next Friday. The Red Cross will be the likely recipient, Connor said. "We thought we'd do something very simple," she said. "One child might bring in one toonie, another child might bring in a fistful of toonies. That money is going directly to assisting in the relief efforts." Canada is sending an initial $5 million for emergency relief and has put transport planes, helicopters and two navy ships on standby, as well as the Disaster Assistance and Response Team. 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