A gala that raised more than $35,000 last year for a medical clinic in a remote, poverty-stricken area of Haiti will be held again on Saturday, Oct. 26.

The 2nd annual Be the Difference Gala will be held beginning at 6 p.m. at the Butler Country Club in Penn Township.

All proceeds from the gala will benefit Hearts 4 Haiti, which was founded by retired Methodist minister Jim Lewis of Butler Township.

Lewis said as pastor at Branchton United Methodist Church 21 years ago, he was attending seminary classes in Pittsburgh.

“I went on the seminary’s spring break mission trips, and while I was on one of those, I met a gentleman who was a retired medical doctor in Haiti,” he said.

The doctor was finishing up his Creole language training in anticipation of become the director of a small hospital in the little Haitian town of Mombin Crochu.

“He invited all the seminarians (to the town),” Lewis said. “He said ‘When you get into a church and want to do a short-term mission trip, look me up.’”

In 2002, the next year, Lewis took two people from Branchton U.M. on a trip to Haiti.

There, he met an energetic and motivated young Haitian man named Maudelin Mesadieu, who wanted to attend medical school.

One of Lewis’ traveling companions, Don Simmons, agreed to fund Mesadieu’s schooling, but it became too much for Simmons.

So Branchton U.M. took on the project, raising money for nine years as Mesadieu attended medical school.

In 2012, Mesadieu graduated, and Lewis and Simmons traveled to Haiti for the ceremony and to offer the new doctor a hearty congratulations.

“After graduation, I said ‘What are you going to do?’” Lewis said. “He said he was going back to his hometown and opening a clinic, and give medical care whether people could pay for it or not.”

Lewis said medical care must be paid for in Haiti, and there are no public programs that pay for care for those who cannot afford it.

He asked Mesadieu what he could do to help, to which he replied “bring mission groups and medical supplies.”

In 2013, Lewis took a group of about a dozen Branchton U.M. members to Mombin Crochu, along with medical supplies from Brother’s Brother Foundation and the medical supply nonprofit Global Links, both of Pittsburgh.

“That was our first trip,” Lewis said.

Little by little, the grassroots mission group supporting the construction and outfitting of the clinic in Haiti got bigger and bigger.

“It got to the point where our church treasurer didn’t want to do both the church finances and the (clinic mission) finances,” Lewis recalled.

He then moved from Branchton to the United Methodist churches in Chicora and Karns City.

“(The mission) just continued to grow, and the treasurer at the new churches said the same thing,” Lewis said.

He began flying to Haiti each March and August to check on the progress of the clinic.

‘On the way back on one of the flights, I got the idea for the name ‘Hearts 4 Haiti,’ and that’s what started the nonprofit.”

Congregation member George Beck, who was a business owner, worked for about a year to secure the new mission’s nonprofit status.

Over the past 11 years, the clinic, a guesthouse and a warehouse were built in Mombin Crochu.

Lewis said Hearts 4 Haiti now has a budget of $3,000 per month, which pays Mesadieu, three nurses, a community health worker, lab technician, secretary and custodians.

The entire budget comes from donations.

While Mesadieu and the clinical staff see about 50 people per day, more than 1,000 people are treated at the clinic during the week when Lewis and Hearts 4 Haiti board members and volunteers are in town.

“When we go, there are more funds, more medications and more supplies,” Lewis said.

He said Mesadieu orders medications for the clinic, and keeps common medicines, like blood pressure pills, antibiotics and vitamins, in stock.

Lewis said before traveling to Mombin Crochu on one of their semiannual trips, his former congregations — he is now retired — take up a collection of over-the-counter medicines.

“We’ll do an aspirin drive or Tylenol drive and we’ll take them down,” he said.

Lewis said village residents come to the clinic for prenatal vitamins and care before delivering their babies there; illnesses and injuries; or even health education.

“When we’ve been there, our people have helped give birth to two babies,” he said.

Mesadieu lines up a few optometrists and general surgeons for the week when Lewis and others from Hearts 4 Haiti will be there.

“The surgeons perform minor surgeries,” Lewis said.

The optometrists examine patients and select a pair of glasses from among those donated by congregation members.

If someone needs a test or procedure that is beyond the capabilities of the clinic, the patient is sent to the small hospital nearby and Hearts 4 Haiti helps them pay the ensuing bill, Lewis said.

He recalls an instance from an early trip to the clinic when a volunteer had been burned and had a significant amount of burn medication left over after healing.

Lewis said Mombin Crochu residents cook over open fires.

“A young girl came to the clinic and she had been burned,” he recalled. “We were able to use some of the man’s medicines on that burn victim.”

In addition to medical care, Hearts 4 Haiti now distributes kits containing rice, beans, pasta, oil and matches to Mombin Crochu’s poorest families.

“Dr. Maudelin has a network, and he knows the poorest of the poor,” Lewis said of the families chosen for the distribution.

Hearts 4 Haiti volunteers ran a vacation Bible school in August for the village’s children, and provided all the materials needed to carry the weeklong event off.

Each child got a basic meal on each day of the Bible school as well, Lewis said.

Lewis is not surprised he ran into the doctor who asked him to consider a mission in Haiti all those years ago.

“I was in the ministry and I felt called,” he said. “It seemed to be where God placed me.”

Lewis has traveled to Haiti 18 times as part of Hearts 4 Haiti.

“They appreciate everything we do,” he said.

Linda Beck, of Fairview Township, is vice president of the Hearts 4 Haiti board of directors. She also has traveled to Haiti multiple times since becoming involved in 2018.

She said her daughter, Kaylee, 12, has accompanied her to Haiti and because she is more highly educated than the adults there, she worked in the pharmacy during one trip.

“(The Haitians) are very welcoming people,” Beck said. “They embraced us and wanted to do as much for us as they could. They really treated us like honored guests.”

She said although they lack many creature comforts that Americans take for granted, they remain an upbeat and positive people.

“The joy they have amid such extreme poverty was amazing,” Beck said.

She said patients pay what they can for medical services, and some barter services for medical care.

Beck said Mesadieu makes sure the community and staff take ownership of the clinic.

She said Hearts 4 Haiti also raises money to buy one goat for families, which they can breed and sell.

“For $75 they can buy a goat, and that becomes their small business,” Beck said. “We’ve met these people we are giving goats to. They are real.”

Like Lewis, she is thrilled to be a part of Hearts 4 Haiti.

“They tell us what their needs are and we try to support them,” Beck said.