In need of a reason to bear those pearly whites?

Mitch Albom has given us one with this awesome music video of a really popular Haitian band performing The Contours’ 1962 hit, “Do You Love Me?”

Oh, wait, that’s Have Faith Haiti’s very own “garage band” playing the song for the very first time, after listening to it for the very first time and pulling together the music and lyrics without sheet music!

A hairbrush suits Jon U. just fine as he belts out on vocals (with Mitch singing back up), Louvenson is keeping time on drums, and they’re joined by Nahoum on guitar, Widley on violin, Chivensky on electric guitar, and Edney and Appoloste on keyboards. If you’re not a Motown fan, you’ll at least recognize the song as being featured prominently in 1987’s cultural phenom, Dirty Dancing.

Mitch filmed the video during his trip to Haiti last week, his first visit to Have Faith Haiti in months due to pandemic-mandated travel restrictions. The children are doing well and keeping busy as they remain safe inside the Mission’s gates, even as the global crisis has – familiarly – upended normal summer routines and activities for them, too.

But one thing that hasn’t been cancelled is our goal to provide each child of the Have Faith Haiti Mission with the opportunity to attend college. Manno and Siem are currently attending Madonna University here in Livonia. And with the help of Michigan Colleges Alliance, the Have Faith Haiti Scholarship Fund seeks to make college attendance accessible for our children, whose ties to Michigan date back to its founding and have been strengthened over the last decade.

And so we hope you’ll join Michigan Colleges Alliance in-person or online on August 27 for Mitch Albom & Friends – an incredible night of stories, laughter, music, and fun live from shores of Lake Michigan at the Great Lakes Center for the Arts in Bay Harbor, Michigan. A hybrid stage / virtual event, you can attend in-person in the limited, socially-distanced seating (with VIP opportunities), or watch the live stream as Mitch (virtually) welcomes special guests, including Emmy-winning actor and comedian Hank Azaria, Oscar-winning actor J.K. Simmons, and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and sportscaster Tony Kornheiser.

Missed the event? You can still watch it on demand.