Posted February 26, 2010

Saddlewood Staffer Spends Winter Vacation Helping Out in Haiti

While Florida is a popular vacation spot for those seeking winter relief during the February school break, the Tockmakis family had another idea. Except it was no vacation.

Photo Gallery of this event

Kathy, a fourth grade classroom monitor at Saddlewood Elementary School, and her husband George, a local missionary, spent a week in earthquake-ravaged Haiti doing their part to help the natives recover from the devastation. The two joined a small group of others from the Capital District traveling to the Haitian capital, Puerto au Prince, on Valentine’s Day.

Why would they do that?

“Because I was moved to tears seeing the devastation and destruction when the earthquake hit on January 12th,’ Kathy explains. “I just knew I had to do something to help.”

Kathy immediately called her husband, who was working in Brazil at the time and said, “We need to go and we need to go now!’
So off they went, armed with food, supplies, baby items, clothing and water purification kits. When they arrived, they couldn’t believe their eyes.

“I felt like I had been plucked off this planet and placed on another,” is how Kathy described it. “There was no water and there were no roads. It was surreal to say the least.”

While on the island, they lived in an orphanage, sleeping on the second floor with a family that had been recently adopted by an Albany woman. They helped clear up debris, replace walls that had crumbled in the earthquake and repair the building with new electrical wiring and paint.
They spent many hours with the Haitian children - feeding them, bathing them and loving them. They helped the families in any way they could. Then on February 21, it was time to come home.

Reflecting back on the trip, Kathy says, “We did what we could in the small amount of time we had. If everyone just did something small, donated a tube of toothpaste, it would make the world a better place to live.”

“The important thing for Americans to remember is that in a couple of weeks, the earthquake will be old news to them,” she added. “But for the Haitian people they will be living this nightmare day in and day out for many years to come.”