Chapel Hill High Student Off to Build Playground in Haiti

The main priority for many students who just finished up their high school careers will be spending the summer enjoying time with friends before heading off to college. But at least one member of the class of 2015 has a big project on her hands this summer.

Allie Parker graduated this weekend after four years at Chapel Hill High School. Now she is off to Haiti for a special project.

“[We’re going] a little bit outside of the capital, Port-au-Prince,” she says, “to build a playground that I’ve been raising money for and working toward for the last two years.”

The playground will be for an orphanage in Haiti. This will be Parker’s second trip with a group out of Raleigh who visited the Caribbean country after it was hit with a devastating magnitude seven earthquake in 2010.

At least 52 aftershocks were felt in the two weeks following the main earthquake. The Red Cross estimates three million people were affected by the quake. And more than 100,000 people lost their lives during the disaster, according to the US Geological Survey.

Parker says seeing the children living at the orphanage on her first trip made her want to take on a larger role in helping others.

“I had a watch on when I went, and to them that was the most amazing thing,” she says. “Just seeing how much a watch could mean to them, that was what struck me to do a playground.

“If they actually had something meant for playing, how much that would mean to them.”

Parker has been fundraising through her church – the United Church of Chapel Hill – in conjunction with the group fundraising out of Raleigh.

“Through my church, I sold jewelry that actually came from Haiti and ornaments,” she says. “And then the church in Raleigh has done dinners to raise money.

“So far, we’ve got about $4,000.”

Parker says the $4,000 raised so far will fully fund the nine-day trip that leaves this Thursday. Parker will be leading half of the group on the playground project, but another half of the group will be building an art camp and dance camp at the orphanage.

While this trip will be sponsored through the fundraising efforts up to this point, Parker says you can contribute and the funds will go toward future projects with the organization.

After her return from building the playground in Haiti, Parker will be off to the honors program at Virginia Tech in the fall.