Heartache and Hope in Haiti
Britney Gengel was a vibrant nineteen-year-old Lynn University sophomore when she traveled to Haiti in January 2010 to work for an aide group. Deeply moved, she texted her mother that she dreamed of returning to open an orphanage of her own. But hours later, an earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince and the Hotel Montana where Britney’s group was staying. For thirty-three days, her family lived a nightmare, with conflicting stories in the post-quake chaos of finding Britney, then losing her. After a gut-wrenching trip to the Haitian capital ten days after the quake, they learned the truth: Brit was not coming home alive.
Vowing that her death would not be in vain, Len and Cherylann Gengel along with sons Bernie and Richie kept alive their daughter’s dream by building an orphanage in Grand Goave, Haiti. This amazing story chronicles their journey: from grieving for their daughter, to building in the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. Their experience is proof that you can find meaning and purpose in tragedy, that faith and love are everlasting, and that one person’s dream can change the destiny of thousands.
100% of the profits of this book will benefit The Be Like Brit Orphanage in Grand Goave, Haiti.
Len & Cherylann Gengel
Len and Cherylann are the parents of Britney Gengel. In many ways, she was a typical teenage girl but her humor, passion and deep sense of caring for those less fortunate made Britney Gengel memorable to all who met her. It was her compassion for others that brought Brit to Haiti, just a day before a catastrophic earthquake that claimed an estimated 230,000 lives rocked the small, poverty stricken country. Britney had spent the day visiting a Haitian orphanage where she and fellow students from Lynn University, on a Journey of Hope, met the small Haitian orphans they had traveled so far to help. Just a few hours later, Britney, three of her fellow students and two Lynn professors were dead, crushed in the rubble of their hotel. Britney was nineteen, her body was recovered thirty-three days later. In Britney’s memory, her family has established a non profit organization called Be Like Brit, whose mission is to serve the children of Haiti by establishing a safe, nurturing and sustainable orphanage in an environment where they can grow, learn and thrive.
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