Yes, the title of this blog is a painfully corny play-on-words to the equally painful 1990 film, Men at Work. I couldn’t help myself, and beg of your forgiveness now. We have had an overwhelming week here at Be Like Brit, starting with the arrival of Len and Cherylann, Richie and Kate, Mark and Jan Fuller, Wendy Perkins from Worcester Academy, Patty Eppinger and two of her children Lauren and Katie, along with Katie’s classmate at Worcester Academy, Emma! Everyone had their own respective work and roles this past week, and the collective result is one we are happy to report on!

Len, Cherylann, Richie, and Kate flew down this past week with our good friends Mark and Jan Fuller of the Fuller Foundation, who have been so supportive of Be Like Brit through not only the Foundation Mark and Jan manage, but personally as well. You may remember that Mark and Jan and the Fuller Foundation were instrumental in our successful completion and build out of the Operations Center in Worcester with a $50,000 donation. They have been actively involved in other fundraising efforts for us as well, most recently and notably through as Rotarians and in helping us secure funding for the construction of our 100,000 gallon cistern, which is nearing the completion of the first phase of work.

Months ago, Gama and I started the process of trying to find a Rotary Club with which to partner here in Haiti, acting as a host club for our project. The local Club was not required to provide funding; Mark and Jan had secured that through local Rotary Chapters in Massachusetts and through a Rotary International Grant. The money was earmarked for Be Like Brit, but we would have to secure this local level support in order to move forward here in Haiti. 

This task proved to be a bit more daunting than expected, and after many meetings with various clubs, we are happy to report the a Delegation from the Legoane Rotary Club just a few miles from Be Like Brit made their way to Grand-Goâve on Tuesday night to inspect our project, meet, and discuss steps moving forward. We are thrilled to have the Rotary Club of Leogane on board and in support of our project so that we may now move on to the second phase of the work – getting the water we will be collecting out of the ground, and pumped out to our 1+acre of gardens and fruit trees, all contributing to the sustainability of our operations here in Haiti. At the same time, this will allow us to reallocate water that has been processed through our nanotechnology filtration system to members of the community, who are so desperately in need of a clean and safe water supply. 

The ripple effects of this project will resonate far and wide, and we are so grateful to Mark and Jan for their work on the Rotary, and honored to be moving forward with the Rotary Club of Leogane as our Host Club.

While this was a momentous occasion for us at Be Like Brit, we are equally excited about the project that Katie and Emma traveled to BLB to complete as a requirement for one of their courses, under the direction of their teacher Miss Wendy Perkins. The girls came to BLB to design, implement, and install a French-language library for our children, complete with color-coded guides to correspond to levels of difficulty, professionally organized and presented! 

We are so proud of the work these two young ladies were able to complete in just two full days here at BLB, and we can’t wait to put one of our older children in charge of the library and allow the children to borrow books, just like so many of us did as children of their age! Let’s be sure to thank Miss Perkins, along with Katie and Emma, for not only choosing BLB as the benefactor of their project, but for having the courage to come down to Haiti and hit the ground running!

Miss Wendy Perkins, an instructor of French at Worcester Academy, is a big part of why the girls made their way to Haiti for this project, and we are so thrilled that after more than 3 years of working to find a project that was both a good fit for both the children of BLB and the objectives and requirements of the girls’ assignment has come to fruition. We look forward to exploring more ways in which Worcester Academy and BLB might work together in the future, and would love to host a group from the school here in the future! Thanks to Wendy for her perseverance on this and for bringing us all together! 

We always love a local connection, and are equally happy to have hosted Patty Eppinger along with her daughter Lauren in addition. While Lauren was unfortunately not feeling well much of the time, it was clear that she was able to connect with the children and enjoyed being a part of our incredible children’s lives! We want everyone to witness firsthand the unconditional love that is Be Like Brit, and we stand by our proclamation that #LoveLivesHere!!! Thank you Patty and Lauren!

While all of this busy and important work was going on, Richie was hard at work taking video and high quality photos to record life at BLB for our friends around the world. We are working on updating our website and other promotional materials for BLB, and his work in this regard is so appreciated. As the younger brother to Britney, Richie’s work, along with Bernie’s expertise, is a labor of love, and we know that shines through in the things we put out there for others as we continue to spread the good news coming from Haiti and from Be Like Brit!

Kate has recently joined the BLB Team as our Volunteer and Child Sponsorship Coordinator, and was also one of Britney’s BFFs in high school! It was such a joy for me to be able to spend time around Kate, along with Len, Cherylann, and Richie, as they told stories and reminisced about their antics growing up as friends together. These types of insights are important for me to understand, as being in the thick of things in Haiti, it can sometimes be easy to forget the reasons for which Len and Cherylann along with their boys continue to do what they do. 

The work of the Gengel Family is and always will be straight from the heart, genuine and pure, and it is so nice to be surrounded by that type of energy in one’s career and professional environment. Kate is a great addition to our team, and hadn’t been to Haiti since our dedication and opening back in January of 2013. The next time you are in Worcester and near our Operations Center, be sure to stop by and meet Kate! Richie will be there all summer, too, and we know there is plenty of work to do if anyone wants to volunteer their time!

This week, Papi Len has taken on a project inside BLB that once again has him as the Foreman of an important construction project! The stairs that he built more than 3 and ½ years ago which exit the kitchen and serve as the access point to the Britsionary area and the rooftop at BLB together with his dear friend Gary were in desperate need of repair or replacement. After contemplating whether to go with metal/iron stairs or concrete, the forms are up and in place, and the work is underway. The sounds of a group of masons working in the courtyard are chaotic and loud; not louder than the two jackhammers working to chip away the support columns for the former wooden staircase. 

I watched Len gaze out over the workers from the second floor the other day while they hammered away at the first support column to come down. Len often has this curious and somewhat mischievous smile when he’s immersed in his work when it comes to construction, and I felt compelled to join him and ask him what he was thinking. As we chuckled a bit at how much time and effort the workers were expending to try to take this column down, I remarked how surprised I was that it wasn’t down already, as the men had been hammering away at this column for some 6 hours…


A smile emerged from Len’s face, and in his most serious tone, the words from his mouth said, “I made those columns. They aren’t coming down easily, that’s for sure.” Another reminder for me of the personal nature of our work here, and how our building, our home is a place of purposeful and intentional symbolism and meaning. From the column supporting the staircase to the number of children and the number of square feet, this memorial and homage to Britney and her commitment to compassion and serving those in need will never be undone – a permanent testament to a life spent in the service of others…

On top of all of this commotion, we celebrated two birthdays and Flag Day in Haiti. A day of great pride and patriotism, I am again reminded of where I am, why I am here, and that very sobering reality that I am a part of something so significant. I feel blessed to be here, and am grateful for the experience which bring me back to my center and remind me of that which is most important in life.

Thank you for helping us help the children of Haiti at Be Like Brit. For me, there is nothing more admirable or deserving than our 66 precious children.