(This story first appeared July 19, 2010 in www.AlexandriaNews.org  and is reprinted here with permission.)

Rony Wise ran 600 miles and lifted four million pounds to raise money for Haiti relief. (Photo: Alex Hampl)

By Alex Hampl
www.AlexandriaNews.org

Rony Wise has lifted the equivalent of ten blue whales. He has run 600 miles, round trip from Washington to New York with a jaunt to Philadelphia thrown in for good measure. Over six months, Wise ran and lifted weights every day to raise funds for Ripples of Hope, an organization that provides financial aid to schools in Haiti.

It all started with the dirt cookies. Wise’s friend and colleague Harry Covert was actively involved in Ripples of Hope.  After returning from a trip to Haiti, Covert sent a report with photos of his trip titled “Dirt Cookies Instead of Oreos” to a group of friends. According to Wise, the children at the school where Covert volunteered were given in-school lunch only once a week. Many of the children got little food outside of school and made “dirt cookies” to sell and trade to make money. It was this image that most affected Wise.

“I don’t think a lot of people realize that the despair and poverty down there doesn’t even equate to here,” Wise said. “In America, there are lots of hungry people, but they can go to a soup kitchen and there are programs for the needy. In Haiti, they’ve got nothing. Some things just call you to action.”

Wise, the Inmate Records Director at the Alexandria Detention Center, started talking to some of his coworkers about raising money. With the help of a colleague, he decided to solicit funds for running 600 miles and lifting four million pounds. Wise suggested that people pledge one penny for every 10,000 pounds he lifted, which would result in a four-dollar pledge per person. He got most of his support from individual donors within the Sheriff’s office and his Homeowner’s Association. He set a goal of $7,680, which would be enough to provide lunches for the school every day for a year.

Wise began his training on January 1. Less than two weeks later, disaster struck and his plans were changed. On January 12, the now infamous earthquake hit Port au Prince and devastated Haiti. The school that Wise was hoping to provide with food had crumbled and was in dire need of repairs.

“What started out as an opportunity to help feed students in Haiti turned into a relief effort after the earthquake,” Wise said.

Wise was facing problems of his own reaching the lofty goals he set. It was difficult to run every day, especially with the record snowstorms that paralyzed the DC area for weeks.

“During the snow storm I tried to run but kept slipping on the ice. Then I realized that if I got hurt I couldn’t finish [the 600 miles] so I had to take a week off and increase my pace after,” Wise said.

The storm, coupled with illness, forced Wise to ratchet up his running pace from the original 3.3 miles per day to over five, sometimes running as many as 11 miles in one outing. On top of that he said he regularly spent two and a half hours a day lifting weights in his basement. For motivation he turned to his family.

“At first I was just trying to keep up with the lifting, but then my family got involved,” Wise said. “My four year old daughter would be down there with me, and she was doing her own arm curls with her three pound dumbbells. My son is nine and he was helping to collect donations. Sometimes he donated his own money… seeing that kept me motivated.”

The school devastated by the Haitian earthquake.

Rony Wise is a humble man, one who seems almost embarrassed at the support he has gotten. “I’m not usually someone who does this type of thing. Normally I’m more of a supporter,” he said.  “I’m thankful I have a job and can provide for my family… I knew these kids had nothing.”

To date, Wise has raised over $2,500 for Ripples of Hope. Even though he successfully concluded his workouts on June 30, he is still actively soliciting more donations in order to get closer to his original goal. Wise said that he sent emails to several organizations asking for after-the-fact pledges. Overall, Wise said he is “happy with the response I got.”

Even when promoting his cause, Wise relegates himself to a figure behind the curtains. When he started raising money, he said, “I wasn’t trying to make a statement, I was trying to make a difference.”

[Rony Wise is still collecting donations for Haiti relief. He can be reached at Rony.Wise@alexandriava.gov. One hundred percent of money raised from his pledges is donated to Ripples of Hope/Haiti].

Here’s the latest report on our Haiti project in general and the rebuilding of Good Samaritan School particularly.  Our team in Port-au-Prince and Cité Soleil has been working steadily, despite rains and all sorts of inconveniences. Like I’ve heard many times, if it were easy everybody would do it.

First, you have my deepest appreciation and gratitude for all of the financial support given by readers of The Covert Letter. Through contributions from you, we have resumed feeding of more than 252 destitute and hungry children in the school compound and we’ve managed to start the rebuilding of the school and facilities.  Pastor Astrel Vincent has been relentless in this project.

This effort has been difficult not just for us but all of the agencies working in Haiti since the earthquake.  Nothing is easy in this poorest nation in the western hemisphere.   Through the cooperation of World Emergency Relief-United Kingdom, World Emergency Relief-Holland, Cross International of Florida and International Relief & Development (IRD) of Arlington, Va., we’ve received more than 25 containers (40-footers) of food, medicines, school supplies and clothing delivered to the Good Samaritan School. And we’ve supplied steel rods to strengthen the proper construction cement.

I am most pleased with the fact that the children-students and hundreds of those in the Cité Soleil slums have also benefited from the generous support.

As you know, malnourishment leads to serious, lifelong health problems, even death.  The effects on children are particularly severe and can include stunting growth, wrinkling of skin, cracked fingers and toe nails and a permanently weakened immune system.  The experience of chronic hunger traumatizes children (and adults) for life.

In Haiti, before the earthquake, 22 percent of children were malnourished.  Some mothers resorted to feeding their children mud cookies because food is so scarce.  I’ve written about this previously in this space.

The January earthquake was a great tragedy for Haiti but the unprecedented response from donors across the world offers hope for the future.  Ripples of Hope donors showed great generosity.

I’m including some photos from a few weeks ago to bring you up-to-date.  Pastor Vincent has been diligent in collecting our supplies from customs in Port-au-Prince.  He’s a patient man and has made certain these goods are received, the people are fed, that workers show up on time and do their work.

When I reported earlier this year about our plan to feed our students daily nutritional meals, with milk Rony Wise of the Alexandria, Va., Sheriff’s Office was determined to raise enough funds — $650 needed monthly – to feed the children.  He has raised enough to guarantee food for six months and more.  He was assisted by members of the Sheriff’s staff that raised over $5,000.  These funds were sent in January directly to Pastor Vincent.

For children like 10-year-old Rebecca (at left), this daily meal is the only secure food she has ever known.

“I am so happy to have this food,” said Rebecca.  “I used to fear every day that I would not have enough to eat and that I would feel the aches in my stomach. My mother worried about me all the time.  But now I know that I can eat every day I feel so free.” This is an accurate quote. Rebecca and the others can look forward to at least another 6 months of food at a vital time in her growth.  There are many more children like Rebecca still in need.

Please accept my personal thanks for supporting the Ripples of Hope/Haiti project.  It’s been my privilege and honor to work with you and those in Haiti.

Steel Rods arrive for rebuilding in August.

Carol,

Love reading your newsletters everyday and share very little but just had to share this one. We are losing our "greatest generation" veterans of WWII at the rate of 2,000 per day and I needed to pass on this wonderful tribute to them as well as other veterans. The story behind the song is as moving and emotional as the song itself.

Thank you so much for all you do for us Typhoons.

Sincerely, Tommy Jenkins (66)
 

Before You Go

The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood!

Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, Fla., eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.

He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly.

At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you."

Then the old soldier began to cry.

"That really got to me," Bierstock says.

Cut to today.

Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die.

"If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them."

The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web, the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren. "It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."

Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.

GOD BLESS every EVERY veteran.... and THANK you to those of you veterans who may receive this!

http://www.beforeyougo.us/play_byg