By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
A local woman traveling with a church group was anxiously waiting out the wallop of Hurricane Matthew Wednesday morning.
Kathy Spiegelhoff, of Burlington, a registered nurse who works full-time at Gooseberries, traveled with Friends of the Children in Haiti Sept. 23. It was a medical mission to La Montagne, where members of the group do everything from dentistry to delivering babies.
“They do whatever they can,” said Kathy’s daughter, Abby Galstad.
Galstad said that the group had heard the hurricane was headed for Jamaica and decided to stay. However, the hurricane changed course rapidly and hammered Haiti early in the week.
Now, the group is stranded due to the catastrophic damage left in the wake of the storm. While the group was safe at a Catholic church on the mountain, Galstad said Friday that the group was planning to walk to the local city of Jacmel over the weekend, catch a small plane to Port-au-Prince and hopefully leave the country on Monday.
“The good news is they’re a smart group of people, and they’re going to be fine,” Galstad said. “I keep telling myself that.
“They’re there at the time they can do the most good,” she added. “God put them there now for a reason.”
However, a more pressing need is that the majority of the medical supplies at the group’s clinic were destroyed by the storm. Galstad said that fundraising is going to be a major focus in coming weeks.
Galstad said that if people would like to donate, checks can be made out to “Friends of the Children” and mailed to Friends of the Children, Attn. Linda Underwood, 1805 Kings Highway, Rockford, Ill., 61107.
One hundred percent of the funds will go directly to helping residents of Haiti at the clinic.
More on the story will be available on both myracinecounty.com and in next week’s newspapers.
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