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COMMUNITY RECORDER
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‘Real relief is going to take a long time’
Janet O’Neill
Volume 13, Number 51 © 2010 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Web site: NKY.com
Newport teacher reports on Haiti By Jeanne Houck jhouck@nky.com
43 men, one quiz
In honor of Presidents Day, The Community Recorder offers a presidential trivia quiz. Take our quiz, and see if you can tell one Adams from another, or distinguish between Harrisons. LIFE, B1
A ‘model’ resident
Rachel Geiman’s modeling career is on display in a twopage spread of the February edition of Cosmopolitan Magazine. Geiman, 19, of Cold Spring, is living in New York City, and is a 2008 graduate of Campbell County High School. NEWS, A2
Matthew 25: Ministries in Blue Ash dispatched Michael VanHook to Haiti as an assessment team leader a week after the Jan. 12 earthquake. VanHook, 54, of College Hill, is a teacher at Newport High School. He’s no stranger to Haiti; VanHook has been traveling there for the past nine years because of the work the International Sports Alliance, a small nonprofit he founded, does in Haiti. Four other Americans accompanied VanHook on his trip to Haiti Jan. 19. They hail from Florida, West Virginia and Texas and, among them, brought skills in as many as three languages, engineering, journalism, entrepeneurship, pastoring a mission and serving as a medical missionary. Three Haitians – one the former chief of police of Port-au-Prince and a presidential body guard – provided transportation and security for the group. VanHook returned to the United States Jan. 27. Here, he tells Community Recorder reporter Jeanne Houck about his experiences.
What did you find in Haiti? “An enormous amount of human suffering and physical
Americans dispatched to Haiti by Matthew 25: Ministries – hidden here in the press of children – make friends. destruction. A people thoroughly terrorized with fear.”
humanitarian aid and disaster relief, this is the worst.’”
Was it as bad as you had imagined? “It is impossible to perceive how terrible something of this magnitude and nature can be before you experience it. What is hardest to comprehend is the degree of the severity of human suffering, especially with the little children.”
What are the living conditions like in Haiti? “The living conditions for the majority of Haitians have always been deplorable. Now, people who could barely scratch out a daily existence have nothing. Now, everyone lives in tents or sleeps on the streets. Most are starving to a greater degree because of lack of food or money. Many are injured and have not received any medical attention; Therefore, their suffering is prolonged with broken bones, infections and diseases.”
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Building bridges
Students at Southgate Independent School are getting some hands-on engineering experience. In the school’s engineering elective class, students in the fifth through eighth grades are using their math and science skills to construct bridges out of Popsicle sticks and balsa wood. SCHOOLS, A5
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Matthew 25: Ministries in Blue Ash dispatched Michael VanHook to Haiti with some supplies and to help assess the damage caused by the Jan. 12 earthquake. Here VanHook, left, delivers water purification kits to a man with a partner organization in Haiti.
Have you gone to other countries to help out in disasters? If so, how do they compare with what Haiti is going through? “Matthew 25: Ministries has been to several, but Wendell Mettey (founder and president of Matthew 25: Ministries) has stated that, ‘In our 20 years of providing
How are the spirits of the people? “They are traumatized. There is a deep fear over the entire populace that is paralyzing.” What did you do in Haiti? “There were two purposes to our mission. First, we made an assessment of the possibilities and barriers for getting relief and humanitarian aid into the country. Second, we were charged by Wendell Mettey to ‘do as much good as possible.’ We went directly to orphanages, clinics, ministries, organizations and
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churches and delivered food, relief supplies, financial support, as well as tended to wounds and provided emotional and spiritual support.” Do you plan to return to Haiti? “Yes, we are already planning a medical relief trip for this month.” What is the most important thing about the situation in Haiti that Americans need to know? “Americans need to realize three things. First, the situation in Haiti is dire, lives are in the balance and being lost daily. This is the worst natural disaster in human history. Second, because so many lives are in peril for a long period to come, real relief is going to take a long time and we cannot afford to stop helping. Last, their financial and material donations are saving lives and truly helping.” Is there something you’d like to say that I didn’t ask you? “Thank you to so many who have given so much. Please continue to help and pray for the people of Haiti. Please continue to help Matthew 25.”
Mystery painter baffles parishioners By Amanda Joering Alley ajoering@nky.com
When 15 paintings on rolledup canvasses were found in the garage at St. Therese Church, years of searching began for two parishioners. Cindy Walker and Scott Froendhoff, who also serves as the church’s sacristan, have spent the past three years searching for information about the painter of the 15 paintings of St. Therese, angels and the church’s first pastor, Monsignor Borias Lehr. Each of the paintings, which may date back as far as the mid1900s, are signed only with the initials REB. “Parishioners paid $1,500 for each of these paintings to be
restored, but no one knows who painted them,” Froendhoff said. “It would be nice for that person to have that recognition, even if they’ve passed away.” Froendhoff and Walker both came to St. Therese since childhood and both said they’ve followed every lead they’ve come across to find the identity of REB. Walker said she’s contacted art galleries, historians, museums and current and past parishioners, hoping someone had heard of REB. The church has no records of who painted the paintings, which are believed to be interpretation of postcards Lehr brought back from a trip to France in 1927. Pictures show that the paintings were originally displayed on
canvasses glued on the walls in St. Therese’s old building, which was rebuilt in 1963. It is unknown whether the paintings currently hanging in the church are the originals from the old building or if REB re-painted them when the church was torn down. After years of finding nothing, Froendhoff and Walker said they can’t bring themselves to quit searching. “I really think there has to someone out there, maybe a relative, who knows who this painter is,” Walker said. “Someone may have a painting signed REB hanging in their house right now.” Anyone who has information about REB is asked to call the church at 441-1654.
AMANDA JOERING ALLEY/STAFF
Scott Froendhoff, the sacristan at St. Therese, points out the initial REB on a painting in the church. Scott and parishioner Cindy Walker have been searching for years to find out the identity of REB, who painted 15 painting that are hanging throughout the church.