Great news....thanks to all of you and your network of friends and colleagues, Heart to Heart has raised $296,102.44. In addition to this, our partner in food and rice collection, Vineyard Church in Abbotsford, has raised $124,413.18, for a grand total of $420,515.62!!

We had another board meeting last night to discuss all the activity over the past two months, fundraisers and plans for how we can best use this money to feed and begin to rebuild H2H Haiti. Our initial target was to send down 10 containers of food. This project is well under way. Two containers have recently arrived in the Dominican Republic port of Santo Domingo awaiting transportation to Latose Dominicanos where the oats will be bagged and then transported to H2H within the next week. The third container left Miami on March 3 and should arrive in Port-au-Prince Haiti by March 10th where it will be transported to H2H and dispersed by Pastor Luc and a team of other pastors. Another container has just been packed in Red Deer Alberta with an assortment of building supplies, tools, tents and a small bobcat, which will be used to clear rubble away from our compound.

Thanks to the US Military, other non-profit organizations and Roger and Albert delivering truck loads of supplies from the Domincan Republic, we were able to secure enough food for one month for our children, staff and community members living on our compound. This bought us time to fill and get the containers moving from Canada. Now we've had time to do the math, crunch the numbers, research, compare, and negotiate to determine the most cost-effective way of supplying food to H2H and the Grande Goave area. Although it is expensive to ship containers of food (primarily rice) to Haitti, as long as our food is donated here in anada, it is still significantly cheaper to ship the food than purchase it in the DR. For fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy, we will still be purchasing locally or in the DR.

As the recovery of the earthquake disaster will take years, our desire is to continue to send two containers per month for the next year. This goal will of course depend on the continued success of our food collection programs in Abbotsford and Pacific Community Church in Cloverdale. In the meantime, we are drawing up plans for the reconstruction of our kitchen/food depot/dining area/guesthouse building as well as our school. We are in consultation with engineers as to the best way to rebuild with a reduced weight load on the second floor of our structures. Demolition of the top floor of the school has already begun. H2H teachers, staff, labourers, and older boys have begun breaking up and chipping away at the large slabs of concrete. We decided that doing this work by hand was the safest way to preserve the bottom floor of the school, and was a great way to keep people employed and feeling purposeful. This demolition work will likely take 4 - 6 weeks to complete, by which time, the bobccat in the container should be arriving to haul away larger chunks of concrete. Once the demolition and removal of rubble is concluded, reconstruction can begin.

The next major fundraiser coming up for H2H is a benefit concert at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre on Saturday, March 20 from 1 pm - 10 pm. There will be performances by Greg Neufeld, Karen Lee Batten, the Fab Fourever (Ultimate Beatles Tribute Band), Damian Marshall and many more artists! Tickets cost $25 - $50 and are available throu gh AESC by visiting : www.abbotsfordcentre.ca or calling: 1-866-977-2372. H2H will receive 50% of all ticket sales, and the other half will go to MCC, so please come out and enjoy the show. It runs for 9 hours, and is set up so that you can come and go, and partake in the music, silent auction and Ten Thousand Villages.

Thank you all so much for your hard work and generosity in helping us raise such a signficant amount of money for H2H Haiti. Your continued involvement will make all the difference in rebuilding Heart to Heart to its original or better form.