Fine Arts And Craft Festival Benefits Haiti

The Clini Med, a three story medical clinic that has been serving the people of Port Au Prince for the last 13 years

Fine Arts And Craft Festival for the benefit of the Bridges of Life Medical Foundation of Haiti, Inc.

When: October 7 – 9, 2012

Where: Twin Brook Winery, 5697 Strasburg Road, Gap, PA

Twenty artists will be displaying their talents at a fine arts and crafts festival which will be held at the Twin Brook Winery on October 7 – 9. 

All of the proceeds from the mixed-media event will be sent to Haiti to assist in the medical mission work of Dr. Patrick Jeudy and to further the construction of a new surgical clinic in Port Au Prince.

The art and craft festival in October will feature some of the finest arts and crafts artists in the area. The following artists will be donating one of their pieces for the raffle table: 

• Jamie Cox (Stormflight Designs)/jewelry; 
• Larry Denver (Nature’s Form Wood Creations/ wood sculpture; 
• Paula Graham/ water color; 
• Cheryl Gross/ jewelry; 
• Carol Habig/ botanical prints; 
• Karen Hurd/ nationally known decorative and reproduction tinsmith; 
• Wanda Kelly/ water color; 
• Annette LeMaire/oils and pastels; 
• Jason Link (Picket Creations)/furniture and home dec; 
• Terri Morse/water colors; 
• Karen O’lone-Hahn (House of the Rising Star Art Studio)/pottery and paint; 
• Judy Petersen (Touch of Earth Studio)/charcoal and paint; 
• Stacey Peterson (Stormflight Designs)/jewelry
• Linda Weigel/paint. 
• Dan Miller (Dean and professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art/wood block prints
• Beth Secor/paint, prints, furniture.

The raffle table will also include donations from friends and local businesses. Priscilla Jordan has donated a freshwater cultured coin pearl set valued at $150 which includes an 18” knotted pearl necklace with silver clasp, matching pearl bracelet and sterling silver earrings. Alyce Denver, who teaches yoga at Twin Brook Winery, will offer a certificate for an eight-week series of yoga lessons at Twin Brook, value $90.

In addition to the pieces offered for sale by the artists and the great items that will be on the raffle table, there will be items made by Haitian artists offered for sale: paintings, stone and wood carvings, necklaces, and leather masks.

To add to the festivities, Twin Brook Winery will be holding a wine-tasting event during the weekend. The wine-tasting will be in the winery and the art festival will be across the parking lot in the greenhouse event building. 

The weekend opens with an artists’ reception Friday evening, October 7 from 7:00 – 9:00. The reception is free and open to the public as is the rest of the weekend. 

Be sure to come Friday evening, meet the artists and get the first look at their work. The festival and wine-tasting continues on Saturday from 10:00 – 4:00 and on Sunday from 10:00 – 3:00.

Twin Brook Winery is located at 5697 Strasburg Road, Gap, PA. For more information contact Alyce Denver via email: alycetdenver@yahoo.com or by phone: 610-405-2819.

Background:

The devastating earthquake in January 2010 which killed over 100,000 people has left tens of thousands still living in tents a year and a half later. Out of that tragedy three people were brought together and founded the Bridges of Life Medical Foundation of Haiti (B.O.L.). Dr. Patrick Jeudy, Haitian-trained surgeon, was interviewed by a reporter for National Public Radio in March of 2010 and described the trauma of the Haitian people, the difficulty of treating patients who refused to enter the damaged clinic for fear that it would collapse on them and the loss of so many family members and friends. The interview was heard by Alyce Denver as she was driving into Philadelphia. After contacting NPR for more information, Alyce was put in touch with both Dr. Jeudy in Port Au Prince and Opal Golden who lives in western New York. Opal had taken relief supplies in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake to friends she had made through a soccer program she had begun several years ago and was introduced to Dr. Jeudy.

Dr. Jeudy and his wife Lise are committed to remaining in Haiti to help rebuild their country. Opal and Alyce with Dr. Jeudy founded B.O.L. in order to bring hope through improved health care to the people of Haiti. In just a year, B.O.L. has provided funding to raise the walls of a new clinic. It is a two-story block building that will be used for surgery and obstetrics and will have fourteen beds. Once this building is completed and functioning, the old clinic (Clini-Med) will temporarily be closed and the walls reinforced. Once it is refurbished, Clini-Med will be used as an out-patient facility. The next project will be to build another clinic in Caberet which is an hour north of Port Au Prince. Dr. Jeudy currently conducts open-air clinics in Cabaret several times a year – treating as many as a thousand people over a three-day weekend.