What a difference a town of 2,300 can make when our fellow human beings are in dire need.


When the 7.0 magnitude quake struck on Jan. 12, killing more than 200,000 Haitians, it left another 3 million people in need of emergency aid.

All over the world, regular people joined the relief effort with no prompting other than their own hearts.

In West Branch, we have seen several initiatives to send food, supplies and money that — so far — have raised more than $9,500:

• Bethany Lutheran Church, which has been packaging food for the hungry for more than two years, turned their efforts toward Haiti specifically, raising more than $5,400 to buy ingredients and organizing more than 100 volunteers for a two-day packaging event. As the need is ongoing, and the response was so great, Bethany is considering a second wave.

• West Branch Friends Church is joining Iowa United Nations Association by co-sponsoring its Night of 1000 Dinners Thursday, March 4, to benefit Haiti with all proceeds being donated to the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

• West Branch Middle School, during the week of Feb. 1-5, raised more than $630 for the Red Cross relief efforts in what is considered the poorest country in the Western world. The school also collected items to create health and hygiene kits — wash towels, combs, wash cloths, soap, toothbrushes, bandages, nail clippers, etc. — which were donated to the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

• West Branch United Methodist Church raised $1,000 to donate to UMCOR. Then the church also put together 25 of the health and hygiene kits for the group.

• West Branch High School students donated about $1,100 over four days in January, all for the Haitian survivors.

• Hoover Elementary pupils, spearheaded by fifth-grader Paige Miller, pulled together $1,400 over two weeks to send to the island that squeezes nearly 10 million people into a space smaller than the state of Maryland.

The most encouraging thing we heard by talking to organizers of these fundraisers was that many people contacted churches, before any plans were laid, and were asking “What can we do to help?”

West Branch residents saw a need and sought out a way to respond to it. And this list is all we have heard about; no doubt there have been numerous churches and individuals who have given to relief organizations outside our city. There is no way to know how much help has been sent from here to Haiti.

But it is wonderful to know that, while Herbert Hoover was known as the Great Humanitarian, there are so many people still today who give what they can afford, and sometimes more than they can afford, to help people who have lost everything.