The St. Thomas Council put on a spaghetti benefit supper for St. Anthony the Hermit Parish in Haiti.

St. Anthony the Hermit parish is located in Lori, a remote area southwest of Jeremie, on the south peninsula of Haiti. The parish serves 23,000 people, has one church, one school, six chapels, one clinic and one priest. Fr. Romain is the pastor of this parish.

In September 2016 Hurricane Matthew, a catagory-5 hurricane, swept through Haiti and completely destroyed the church at St. Anthony's parish. St. Therese parish and the Diocese of Portland quickly went into action and raised the necessary funds to rebuild their church. Dave Murphy coordinated the church rebuilding effort. Julian worked with Dave Murphy in coordinating the hiring of various contractors and getting materials to the jobsite. Getting materials to the jobsite proved to be quite a challenging effort, as roads going to that part of Haiti are quite crude, thus making the transporting of building materials a trying effort. But they managed!

Julian, a representative from St. Anthony the Hermit parish, paid a visit to our parish during the first week in September. Unfortunately, Fr. Romain's visa did not come through and he was unable to come to the States.

Julian conducted a very informative presentation following the spaghetti meal. His presentation included a video outlining the church rebuilding progress. Julian was open to questions following his presentation.

Almost $900 was raised from this supper to aid St. Anthony's rebuilding effort.