It’s Back-to-School Time

In the 1990s, Staples aired a popular commercial about a parent’s joy at back-to-school shopping, calling it the “most wonderful time of the year.” We know Christmas in December (and July), but it looks like for frenzied parents eager to get back to a regular school schedule, September is another holiday season.

It’s not quite a holiday for us, but we certainly have a tradition, and it’s starting as of today: the back-to-school wishlist.

Every year, we open our school preparations to kind sponsors and supporters like you who, in turn, open your hearts to help equip our students with all they need for a successful school year. How successful? Well, our dearest Manno did so well on his TOEFL that he is starting Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan this fall.

While we take every effort to purchase all goods locally in Haiti, the protests in July have resulted in damage and looting to many stores we patronize, including Delimart, which was burned down and is hoping to rebuild within the next year. Regrettably, our efforts this year will have to prioritize maximizing our budget and that may mean purchasing some goods from U.S. vendors. We will also not be taking the students out to shop directly because the stores we will have to visit, like Maison Handel, survived the protests but are too far to safely transport all of the children. Instead, we will open a pop up “school store” on campus, and mimic the budgeting lesson on through another currency, like “points.”

We’ve divided up the wishlist by child and into $20 / $25 / $50 options. You can view it here.

Join us October 14, 2018 for a one-night only special event celebrating the launch of Mitch Albom’s The Next Person You Meet in Heaven at the Detroit Opera House, benefitting the children of the Have Faith Haiti Mission and Detroit. Guests include Anderson Cooper, Jane Pauley, Sophia Bush, ‘The Detroiters’ stars Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson, Joe Dumars, Bob Costas, KEM, and a video appearance by Jim Harbaugh. Details and ticket information here.