In Loving Memory of Mr. Phedre

In Loving Memory of Mr. Phedre

It is with great sadness that we share the sudden passing of a beloved teacher at the Have Faith Haiti Mission, “Mr. Phedre.” Born Vladamir Delinois in Haiti, he lived in Brooklyn and Florida as a child. As an adult, he served in the U.S. Army, and returned to Haiti, where he joined the Mission teaching English. He worked with our high school students on their TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) preparations, which is required for students to do well on if they are to gain admission to a college or university in the States.

Read more about him in Mitch Albom’s post from “Life at the Orphanage.”

The kids got to hold their own memorial for him earlier this week. We’re sharing some of Nahoum’s loving tribute here — it’s a must-watch.

Michigan Colleges Alliance Presents Mitch Albom & Friends 3.0 // Update

Please note the new details for this year’s fundraiser, which is moving from the Great Lakes Center for the Performing Arts to Madonna University in Livonia, MI, where some of our children currently attend or will be starting in the fall! Join us in-person if you can, or online if you can’t, but most importantly, please consider lending your support!

MCA 2021 IG

Thursday, August 19, 2021

7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

In person:  Madonna University Welcome Center (36700 Schoolcraft Road, Livonia, MI 48150)

Or join virtually via livestream!

Join us via livestream or in-person for the 3rd annual Mitch Albom and Friends – an incredible night of stories, laughter, music, and fun, live from Madonna University’s spectacular new Welcome Center.  Mitch has rounded up a few of his entertaining pals to join in the festivities virtually – including Golden Globe-winning actress Kate Hudson, Emmy-winning actor Bradley Whitford, and NFL Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders.  On-stage and in-person, we’ll hear from local sports anchor Bernie Smilovitz and NFL Hall of Fame tight end Kellen Winslow, Sr., as well as Madonna University students from the Have Faith Haiti Mission.  It’s all for a great cause as we raise money for the Have Faith Haiti Mission college scholarship fund in partnership with Michigan Colleges Alliance.

We hope you will join us on August 19.  To learn more and to purchase tickets or register for the livestream, visit: https://michigancolleges.org/mitch.

A Young Writers’ Retreat

A Young Writers’ Retreat

Esther, Shamaika, Angeline, Jimmyna, and Stephania have been spending a lot of their free time recently writing short stories and even designing pictures for each page. They asked one of their teachers, Danielle, to help them edit, and soon they formed their own little writers’ “retreat.” Over two days, our budding novelists talked about parts of speech – like nouns, verbs, and adjectives – and worked on story maps. Story maps take a graphic approach to building out the elements of a story or book, “mapping” out the beginning, middle, and end of a story. 

The young writers spun tales about friends at the beach and their own activities.

Learning the Art of Handicraft

Learning the Art of Handicraft

Two new wonderful volunteer additions at our school are teaching the joy — and the skills — of the craft maker.

Amy and Bob Thibodeau joined the Have Faith Haiti Mission team from Canada to lead courses in making and repairing things. Called WWW: Wood, Wiring and Water, the Thibodeaus are leading four different bi-weekly classes of varying age and skill to help students learn woodworking, electrical wiring and plumbing.

Currently focusing on woodworking, students have already completed two projects — shower hook shelving and a picnic table. The goal is to build five small tables for younger children, and possibly donate one of them to a neighboring orphanage or location in need of them.

Additional activities also include sewing, and some of our teen girls have made small drawstring knapsacks for themselves and others at the Mission.

Their developing skills – and growing love of the craft – are already so impressive, we may have some master craftspeople and artisans in the making!

Delayed Until the Fall, This Year’s Spelling Bee is As Ambitious As Ever!

Delayed Until the Fall, This Year’s Spelling Bee is As Ambitious As Ever!

This year, our annual Spelling Bee was held in September. Although it’s usually a late spring event, school director Cara Nesser wasn’t able to visit because of COVID-19 restrictions. Held just before the start of our new fall term, the spelling bee thus came with an extra challenge: the students had to remember vocabulary words from last year, and study them again. 

For the first time, the spelling bee also coincided with a visit from Mitch and Janine Albom, both of whom agreed that even they weren’t sure how to spell some of the words!

Despite her rigorous attempts, Ms. Cara could not whittle down any class to just one winner even with words like crustacean, Platyhelminthes, Cnidarian, catalyst, ecclesiastical and the all time most dreaded word: Deoxyribonucleic acid  (the scientific name of DNA, in case you folks at home didn’t know!)  Even Mitch was sweating out this one!

Our oldest group, Secondary 3, not only had to spell the words, but define their words as well. If there was any question as to the validity of the answers, Mitch served as the “panel of judges” to determine if the answer qualified. He looked up dictionary definitions online, in real time, and fortunately, with one exception, all the answers were right.  All of the words we use in our Spelling Bees are taken from actual classwork—no random words are added to the Bee.

It was an exciting Spelling Bee, followed by our annual “school opening” ice cream party, and this year, a special concert presented by our two in- house rock bands! 

Now we are busy in school, learning MORE words for next year…

Check out the winners gallery!

> Read an important update from school director Cara Nesser on the impact of COVID-19 on the Mission’s school, and the resilience of our teachers and students!

Bonus video – do you know the helping verbs?