Chapel Hill High graduate Allie Parker has just returned from Haiti, where she and a team of 24 volunteers helped build a playground for orphaned children. Parker says the project was a hit with the kids.

playground3

“On the last day, right before we flew out, we went with them over to see it. They loved it,” Parker recalls. “I think at first they were a little confused, but after they all got out on it, they were having fun and they didn’t want to leave.”

The children at the Yahve-Jire Children’s Foundation range from infants to 18-year-olds. Some teens who have aged out of care at the facility stay on as staff members.

“A few of them have lost their parents to the earthquake, but most of them, their parents just can’t afford to keep them, so the owner has taken in 25 kids,” says Parker. She notes he has plans to expand to accommodate up to 60 children.

playground1

Parker and others raised $4,000 for the project in conjunction with the Western Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Raleigh. This is her second trip to Haiti to help rebuild following the devastating earthquake five years ago.

She says she’d like to go on similar service project trips to Haiti and Nicaragua in the future. In the meantime, Parker is preparing to start classes at Virginia Tech this fall.

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