The Richwood United Methodist Church’s first free Carnival for a Cause on Sept. 3 raised about $3,000 to help rebuild a Haitian school destroyed by a 2010 earthquake that killed approximately 220,000 people.
“We raised about $2,300 at the carnival,” said Richwood church administrator Mildred Herman. “We had an offering in church the week before which should bring the total to around $3,000.
“A while ago, I saw something on Facebook from another church, and they had a picture of the place I had been to in Haiti,” said church missions team chair Carol Brozoski. “And I saw it and I connected with them, and I said I know those people. So long story short, we kind of collaborated to raise money for the school at this little village called Mellier.
“It’s a place our church had gone to about 10 years ago after the earthquake,” she added. “The school buildings never got rebuilt. A lot of other things got rebuilt, but not the school. We helped rebuild the church there. So, when we found out the school was in disrepair 10 years later, we decided to have a carnival to raise money for it.”
The church carnival included a tug of war, a dunk tank and a water balloon toss that people could sign up for in order to participate. Clowns were on hand as well, performing a variety of tricks as carnival music played in the background. Brozoski herself played a clown.
The church also held two raffles that were the primary sources of funding to help rebuild the school. Its band, Sanctified, performed music from artists like Foreigner and Olivia Newton-John, a tribute to the recently deceased singer.
