Happy Encounters: American girl, just 12, builds 27 homes in Haiti

If you've been wanting to help others in need, don't just think, but act now!  


(Extract from article American girl, just 12, builds 27 homes in Haiti) If there really is something called "helper’s high" - that feel-good sensation that comes from extending a helping hand to others - Rachel Wheeler is soaring.  The 12-year-old Florida resident has done more to aid others than many grown-ups do in a lifetime.

Three years ago, when she was only nine, Rachel tagged along with her mother to a very adult meeting about charity work in Haiti.  She listened as Robin Mahfood, from the aid agency Food For The Poor, describe children so hungry that they eat cookies made of mud, so poor that they sleep in houses made of cardboard.  

At the time, Julie Wheeler wasn’t even sure her young daughter understood much of what was being discussed— "until Rachel stood on a chair in front of all those adults and pledged to help Food For The Poor," Wheeler said.

Then a fourth grader, Rachel promised to raise money to build a dozen homes in Haiti.

"Rachel didn’t just want to help," her mother remembers, "but she said she had to help."

Rachel ran bake sales, passed the can at homecoming games and sold homemade potholders at her Zion Lutheran School in Deerfield Beach, Fla. She mailed fundraising appeals to the parents of her friends and the people she knew from church. In her hometown, the Lighthouse Point Chamber of Commerce cut two sizable checks.  Through her Facebook page and word-of-mouth, a cherry farm in Washington heard about Rachel and sent along the proceeds from one of its season's harvest. Another generous donation came from a family that regularly supports the overseas work of Food For The Poor.

In three short years, this little girl raised more than $250,000.

Through her Facebook page and word-of-mouth, a cherry farm in Washington heard about Rachel and sent along the proceeds from one of its season's harvest. Another generous donation came from a family that regularly supports the overseas work of Food For The Poor.

Instead of just building 12 homes, Rachel more than doubled her promise. She spent $170,000 on brand-new earthquake-proof cement structures that shelter 27 families in a small fishing town outside of the capital Port-au-Prince. The families baptized the housing tract "Rachel’s Village."