INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The stakes were high at the “Health 4 Haiti – Bet On It” casino night this weekend, and not just for the gamblers in the room. The ultimate winners were to be the people of Cite Soleil, a community outside of Port au Prince where American doctors and nurses are bringing medical aid and training to one of Haiti’s most destitute neighborhoods.
About 150 guests paid $100 each to place their bets in a night of Vegas-style gaming at the Piper Aircraft’s facility on Aviation Boulevard. Proceeds went to the Haiti Clinic, while guests cashed in their chips for a variety of raffle items, among them Vero Beach getaways, a dozen bottles of wine from around the world and $5,000 worth of braces.
“The dollars from tonight translate directly into saving lives,” said Doctor Neil Heskel, a Vero Beach dermatologist, who served as the Haiti Clinic Board of Directors president in 2011.
Fortifying his remarks was Doctor Larry Kaplan, a gastroenterologist from Wellesley, Mass., and president of the clinic’s board.
“It’s remarkable how little it costs to save a life,” he said, citing the use of antibiotics to treat such life-threatening illnesses as pneumonia and diarrhea.
Silent auction items included traditional, handcrafted tin art bought from Haitian artists by the nonprofit Cite Soleil Opportunity Council founded by Kaplan in 2010 as an outgrowth of his volunteer medical services with Haiti Clinic. The council purchases the artwork and sells it to make money for the creators and finance health care and other services needed in Cite Soleil.
The clinic’s goal is not only to provide health services, but to educate Haitians to take over those functions eventually. The fundraiser will help provide medications, medical supplies and continue paying the salaries of Haitian staff to run the clinic even when doctors and staff are not there from the United States.
Haiti Clinic is a non-profit that taps the expertise of healthcare practitioners and other volunteers to help some of the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere with access to medications and physicians, basic necessities such as clean water and adequate nutrition, and education and sanitation.
The clinic was started in 2007 after Doctor Dirk Parvus, emergency physician at Sebastian River Medical Center, visited a friend in Haiti and toured Cite Soleil.
Parvus returned soon after with other medical staff, and served more than 260 patients in two days. Since then, doctors have signed on to volunteer their time and expertise as well as paying their own travel, lodging and other expenses to help Haitians get medical needs met.
“People really wanted to give; people wanted to go,” Parvus recalled.
In addition to the doctors and nurses who routinely visit, prompting Haitians in the area to walk for hours to the clinic to get care, volunteers pack and ship medical supplies and do administrative tasks. Medications with a retail value in the tens of thousands of dollars are dispensed for free.
There is no shortage of need in Cite Soleil. In a more recent visit, the clinic staff, which includes Haitian doctors and nurses, met with 1,200 patients in a single weekend. Nearly 400,000 people live in Cite Soleil without water, electricity, plumbing or routine medical attention.
“People are dying from simple stuff, like diarrhea,” said Parvus. “They don’t have the nutrition, clean water or other things we have here.”
While networking and discussions on the Haiti Clinic permeated the hangar, so did fun at the slot machines and gaming tables where roulette, Texas Hold ‘em poker, black jack and craps were in full swing.
“Gambling brings out the Halloween side of men,” said Florida syndicated radio talk show host Ed Dean, half-joking. “They wear the fedora and big jewelry, talk the lingo and go to the ATM to get a wad of cash. They silence their phones or if their wives call, they say, “I’m still in Wal-Mart honey.”
In the spirit of Vegas fashion, some women showed up in tight, short dresses and very high heels, while men bantered and egged on their friends with bets.
“I’m giving my advice to that guy, while I’m losing my shirt over here,” said Flynn Fibgeon, after high-fiving his friend who was winning handsomely at black jack. “I’m kind of a mentor to him not just here, but in life.”
For more information about Haiti Clinic’s mission, visit www.HaitiClinic.org.