by Jonathan Lamare

It's been quite the week for us at Be Like Brit, both in Haiti and in the USA! While we welcomed a visit from Cherylann, who kept us all busy with planning all the amazing things we're working on for 2016, we're also busy in the USA planning for the Christmas Holiday in Haiti, which includes our Christmas Eve employee appreciation dinner and celebration, as well as (of course) Christmas for the children! With 100 employees, we are anticipating upwards of 350 people for Christmas Eve dinner and the Christmas concert the children have worked so hard to prepare for! It is always an incredible event and we can't wait to share with you photos and video from the event!

As you may have seen on Facebook, Cherylann flew in last week for a visit, and of course the children could not have been happier to see her! Cherylann is so busy in the USA with our Operations Center that we don't get nearly enough of her in Haiti! As a result, her visits are overwhelmingly filled with all the love that a mother brings! The children absolutely adore Cherylann, and while we are sad that she won't be with us over Christmas, we are so grateful for the incredible time spent together ahead of the holiday, and we're looking forward to January when she makes her way back down to us!

I was so happy to be able to travel back to the USA with Cherylann this past Thursday in order to attend a fundraiser and gala at Regis College in Weston. Our relationship with Regis goes back a little bit; our Director of Development, Alycia, is an alum of Regis, and Regis College has a Haiti nursing education project which is raising the bar and increasing the standard of education for nursing professionals in the country. We were so fortunate when Regis graduated their first class of Master of Science in Nursing students in Haiti to have received a visit from the President of Regis, Dr. Toni Hays, her daughter Alexis, and Cherlie Magny-Normilus, a part of the nursing faculty at Regis and Director of the Haiti Nursing Project here in Haiti, back almost two years ago now! At the time, Dr. Hays promised that Be Like Brit and Regis would collaborate on something when the time was right, and she kept good on that promise!

Our collaboration with Regis includes a partnership with the Regis College Honors Program, directed by Dr. Michelle Cromwell, and the Regis College Children's Center, directed by Ms. Rebecca Putnam. A part of the Honors Program is a Senior Seminar course, and students registered in that class complete a service-learning component as well as study an issue specific to a region. As our good fortune would have it, the Honors Program chose Haiti as their area of study, and so the stars aligned for a great opportunity for Regis students, the children at the Regis College Children's Center, and the children of Be Like Brit! This work ended with a beautiful, black tie gala at Regis this past Friday night.

An event coordinated, planned, and executed entirely by the students in the Honors program, Alycia, Cherylann and I were thoroughly impressed and humbled by the incredible job done by these young scholars! It was our great pleasure to attend as the guests of honor, and to share with those in attendance the story of Britney Gengel and the history of Be Like Brit. We are excited about future endeavors and collaborations with Regis College, and are so grateful for the opportunity to work together! Perhaps the most exciting news of the night was President Hays' surprise visit to the gala, after informing us of other obligations which would prevent her from coming! We are so glad that President Hays found the time in her busy schedule to stop by to recognize the incredible work of the Honors scholars and speak to the work we're doing in Haiti at Be Like Brit, too! A huge thank you to all at Regis for this incredible opportunity!

A great friend and supporter of Haiti, Alexa Pozniak, is also a Regis alum. Alexa has traveled to Be Like Brit on several occasions, usually alongside Susan Wornick, as Alexa is a producer and journalist in the news business. Alexa is responsible for some of our incredible videos, hosted on our youtube.com page (blbhaiti), and has brought exciting programming to Be Like Brit and been an advocate and ambassador of our work from the very beginning. We were sad that Alexa couldn't attend the gala due to obligations with work, but were thrilled to meet up with her that evening after we finished! I would imagine that Cherylann and Alexa would have preferred to go to the actual Acapulco, but at least for now, the restaurant will have to do! It was great to see Alexa and talk about potential projects for 2016!!!

I am writing this blog now at 36,000 feet ~ traveling down to Haiti this Sunday morning with Christine Steinwand (Len's sister) and Suzanne Brady, who are both members of the Be Like Brit Foundation's Program Committee. While Len was busy building the orphanage over the course of two years, Chris and Suzanne, along with the four other members of the program committee were hard at work mapping out the vision of BLB and putting systems and protocols into place to govern the programming related to the policies concerning the children who would eventually call BLB home. Both Suzanne and Chris were at the dedication ceremony back on January 5, 2013, but neither have traveled to BLB after we made the transition from construction project to an actual home for children. We're thrilled to have them and their expertise coming to Haiti, as they are both child psychologists and have extensive experience in areas relevant to our work and mission.

I'm personally excited to share with them the work we are doing, and even more so eager to hear their feedback on how things are going with the children who call Be Like Brit home. Christine and the committee developed an Individual Life Plan as a part of our Working Vision and Guiding Principles, and I'm excited to have them see that operationalized. The ILP is the brain-child of Christine, and the holistic model upon which it is built serves our children so very well. Just another example of how we are raising the standard of care for orphans in the developing world!!!

Yesterday, we welcomed our first Britsionary group since October of this year! We sadly had to cancel both scheduled trips in the month of November because of security concerns, and are thrilled that we'll be back to our good work of building a home for a neighbor and community member in need! This week, we're building a home for our friend Samson and his family. Many of you may know Samson, as he is one of the boys (age 14) who helps out at Be Like Brit in the kitchen on weekends as a part-time job, and whom a previous Britsionary group has sponsored and is sending to school! His mother and father along with 4 siblings share a small house which we improved some 2 years ago. We love Samson, and his mother Florence works for us, and so we can't wait to have this Britsionary group hand over the keys to a new and safe home for him and his family!!! Be sure to stay tuned to Facebook for updates from the week!

Before I left New England, Cherylann and I were fortunate enough to be invited to a reunion party of the Country Bank and Wolf Co. trip which happened back in October. One of the best parts of this job is the pleasure to meet so many incredible people, and it was so nice for me to be welcomed in to Dan and Tiffany's home for an evening of reminiscing and planning for the next great adventure! All of us at BLB appreciate the connections and relationships which develop after a week in Haiti together, and we can't wait to have these fine folks back in Haiti as soon as they can!!!

We are so excited for this Holiday Season and can't wait to share with you all of the precious moments we're sure to capture! As always, we thank you for helping us help the children of Haiti at Be Like Brit!!!