Every year since May 2007, Nathan Pierce stops everything and
flies to Haiti. Taking up his yearly vacation time, Pierce’s trip
is anything but a vacation. Instead it is a humanitarian effort,
dedicating his time to the youth of Haiti.
Every year since May 2007, Nathan Pierce stops everything and flies to Haiti.
Taking up his yearly vacation time, Pierce’s trip is anything but a vacation. Instead it is a humanitarian effort, dedicating his time to the youth of Haiti.
Stuffed in his luggage are hundreds of pillows, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and anything else he thinks could be used. His two weeks in the impoverished nation are for the hundreds of kids who don’t have the things he does.
And since 2007 he has gone five times, including this past month – near the one-year anniversary of the 2010 earthquake that is estimated to have killed between 100,000 and 200,000 Haitians. Pierce left work for a month last year to help out the nation during the troubling times after the earthquake.
The Hollister-born Pierce’s interest in the area started in college at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he said. It was there where he was introduced to the knowledge of countries with less fortune. But his need to go to Haiti was sparked in 2007 when his church, Hollister Christian Fellowship, was set to go on a mission trip. Pierce signed up and met Haitian orphanage pastor Josue Jaossaint.
Jaossaint introduced Pierce, who works at the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District, and the church’s pastor Don Skow to his orphanage and the 100 of kids he looked after. Calling it the “Feed the Kids Program,” Pierce interviewed every kid, wrote down their name, took their picture and asked for donations from friends and family.
“Every kid has their own story,” Pierce said.
From there, every year, Pierce goes back to give the donations he received and give back to the Haitian citizens, he said. Pierce receives thousands of dollars worth of donations for every trip from co-workers, friends and family.
“I feel blessed to bring their love with me,” he said.
In his most recent trip, from Jan. 31 to Dec. 15, Pierce brought with him 15 water filters to help out families with water issues. The BioSand filters use sand and their natural filtration to clean water. The filters turn the water 98 percent pure, Pierce said.
“It’s sand and gravel so it should last a lot longer,” Pierce said. “It’s a better program.”
To help with the translation overseas, Pierce has studied Creole and slowly developed a working knowledge of the language with every trip, but he still seeks a translator when he is there, he said.
“I’m getting to my height of Creole,” he admitted.
But despite the language barriers, he will continue to go back.
“It’s hard to turn your back to everything over there,” he said. “When I got home the first time, I was in my room and I just starting crying. It was irrational, but how could I leave those kids over there?”
For his parents, they couldn’t be prouder, Hollister Realtor Ray Pierce said.
“I think we are very proud of him, very proud,” he said. “He is just a good kid, really trying to make a difference in the world.”
Pierce doesn’t have any current plans to go back soon – he just returned over the weekend – but does look forward to his next trip sometime in 2012.
“My plans are always pretty loose – I usually buy my ticket pretty last minute – I don’t plan too far ahead,” he said. “I’ll probably go back later in 2012.”
