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Provoan raising funds to build Haiti orphanage

By Sharon Haddock
Deseret News staff writer

PROVO — Weston Whatcott knows nothing about construction. He's never raised money for anything. But he's taken on the task of building an orphanage in Haiti anyway. He's tapping friends and strangers for a 50-bed facility that will cost $225,000.

Guesno and Marjorie Mardy have 30 children in their tiny home, three of whom are their own. They turn away 20 to 40 each month. Courtesy of Weston Whatcott

"I feel kind of like Noah must have felt when he tried to see himself building an ark or Jonah when he tried to run away. I try to run but the Lord keeps sending whales," Whatcott said. Whatcott is retired, and he and his wife run West Sands Adoptions while raising a second family of six adopted children.

He became committed to the orphanage after he visited a friend in Haiti who introduced him to Guesno and Marjorie Mardy. The Mardys are trying to deal with the increasing numbers of children who are being left in their care because their relatives can't feed and clothe them. At last count, the Mardys had 27 children in their small tin-roofed home along with their three biological youngsters. There is no clean water available and beds are stacked in every room, many without mattresses. But the children keep coming. Usually an aunt or uncle brings the child to the Mardys' house. Other times they are simply abandoned.

One night, two babies were lifted over the wall and dropped into the Mardy's yard. The Mardys have to turn away between 20 and 40 children a month. "Before I took this on, I had never asked anyone for a dime, but for this particular cause, I'm willing to do it," Whatcott said. "And I've been amazed at the people who are willing to give." Whatcott has raised $57,000 so far and has two trips planned to Haiti. On Feb. 15, he intends to start seeing to the pouring of footings and getting the foundation in place. In June, with the help of an army of volunteers and Scouts, he hopes to finish the Foyer de Sion (House of Zion) building. "It'll all be interesting. We'll have to dig a well to get to clean water. We need a generator and an invertor system for power. The building needs to be hurricane-proof," he said. "And we want to build for 300-bed capacity so we can add wings without going back to do it all over."

Whatcott has enlisted help. Gordon Carter, a builder and the owner of Charities Anywhere of Idaho, heard of the project and called to offer to take charge of the actual construction.

Paul Cook, a neighbor of the Whatcott family, is helping organize the labor that will include missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who've returned home but are willing to go back to Haiti to help.

Two acres of land, along with the using of an adjacent plantation, have been donated as well as a used generator. Potential Eagle Scouts are signing on to go to Haiti and work on service projects. Whole families, including those of Timothy and Terry Elmer of Lehi and their three daughters, are planning to go to Haiti in June. "Can you imagine, a father and son working shoulder to shoulder to build an orphanage with each other? Or a mother and son? I would have given my eye teeth to have such an experience with my father when I was growing up," Whatcott said.

"What we need now are more volunteers and more donations," he said. "We have 10 signed up for the first trip and 40 for the trip in June, but we can use more. "We can use everything, clothes, bedding, diapers and especially formula. But we'll take anything." The children in the orphanage are all healthy and adoptable, Whatcott said. They range from babies to 10 years old. It costs about $12,000 for an American couple to adopt a Haitian child.

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