had suffered. One woman in Orlando, 14 members of her family were killed that day in the earthquake. That struck close to home. I thought, “I should go to Haiti and see what I can do down there.”
On my first visit, I stayed in an orphan- age called New Life Children’s Home. There were 150 children there — it’s right in the middle of Port-au-Prince. As I started doing volunteer work in Haiti, I quickly heard the statistics: unemployment over 80 percent; 84 percent of the population doesn’t have access to basic health care; with a popu- lation of nine million, over one million are orphans. The statistics were mind- boggling to me. I knew it was the poor- est country in the Western Hemisphere,
but when I saw the devastation from the earthquake and the conditions these people were living in, it was unbe- lievable. The fact that they’re only an hour-and-twenty-minute flight away from Florida was also unbelievable.
I can’t do everything, but I knew there were specific things I could do to imme- diately improve the quality of life for this specific group of children at the orphanage. I knew I could provide bed- ding and wheelchairs and food and vita- mins to help them. The short-term plan is survival, nutrition, and basic medical care for them. The longer-term vision is education, for them to really thrive and have a better life. I was also aware that the hospitality industry that I’ve had this
Walk the Walk ‘I knew with all of my connections and resources, and the heart and soul of the hospitality industry, I could help these children.’
wonderful career in is rich in resources, and full of great people that are so willing to help and so willing to give.
Two years ago, I started my nonprofit, My Neighbor’s Children, with two friends. Honestly, I didn’t want to start a nonprofit. I didn’t want to get into the business side of it. But in order to legitimize my efforts in Haiti, I needed to be a little bit more official than just this crazy woman from Florida who works for Visit Orlando and keeps com- ing to Haiti and tries to do things. I was well aware of the resources and spirit of our industry. Over the past few years, I’ve enjoyed this emergence of people wanting to be involved in CSR, sustain- ability, and ethics. And then seeing this tremendous need in Haiti, everything came together at the right time.
I used to do a lot of talking about CSR, probably not doing as much, person- ally, as I could. I thought, if I’m going to talk the talk about how to incorporate CSR into the meetings and hospitality industry, I need to walk the walk a little bit more than I’m doing. Now I’m happy to say I walk the walk as much as I talk. I just got back from what I believe is my 17th trip; I lost count at some point. Ninety percent of my personal PTO goes to doing my volunteer work in Haiti. I knew with all of my connections and resources, and the heart and soul of the hospitality industry, I could help these children with these tremendous needs and be a liaison between the two worlds. That’s what I see has happened.