By Britton Buttrill

While other High School Students were spending their free time at movies, concerts, and local hangouts, Lovett School Freshman Grace McCollam spent almost a week doing hands-on relief work in Haiti. From Feb. 2 – 6, she traveled with a doctor from her father’s medical practice to help in relief efforts for the earthquake victims.

Grace’s father and his orthopedic medical practice have spent the last 20 years traveling to Haiti to work at the Albert Schwitzer Hospital. This is not the first time Grace has traveled abroad to volunteer, but her first time in Haiti might have been her most moving experience. “It is a really different experience than anyone would imagine,” she said. “Of all the people I have met abroad in developing countries, I haven’t met any as happy as the Haitian people. They are kind from a very young age. They learn how to be kind and faithful and hopeful, and to cope with what they’re going through.”

Grace has traveled to Nicaragua, among other countries, to do relief work with the impoverished, but from the moment she arrived in Haiti the devastation was apparent. “I stepped off the plane and there was chaos outside. People were asking if I could give them work or money for clothes. There would be like one or two buildings that were standing. I could just imagine people getting trapped under there, and I don’t know how anyone could survive that,” she said.

The chief effort of the mission was a medical supply run for the hospital. Grace stated, “We brought down medical supplies for surgery and sorted it all out for the staff. This hospital usually held around 200 people, but they were holding 500 people, and almost all of them needed surgeries. The staff performed 15 surgeries per day, sometimes working for over 18 hours in one day.”

Grace said the hospital was overrun and the staff overworked, with Haitian doctors working non-stop. She believed that the team’s efforts were effective. “I’m sure that no one would have been able to have surgery without the supplies,” she stated.

Although this was one of the most intense of her volunteer excursions, it is not hampering any of her future plans to partake in relief work abroad, and although she does not have concrete plans about her future career,  she does know that she will continue to volunteer. “I’ve decided not to go to camp this summer, and I’m pretty sure I’m going back to Haiti to help, and I’ll also be returning for next year’s spring break,” Grace said.