As a young boy, Rick Hawkins lived in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
"I was there for six years and have good friends still there," said Hawkins, who now lives in northeast Dallas.
His father, a Future Farmers of America teacher, was part of a special team from Texas A&M University that went to the area to better educate islanders in managing agriculture and stock. Even then, as a teen, Hawkins was aware that Haiti was in bad shape.
"On a good day," said Hawkins, 59-year-old president of Universal Benefits Company, "the average person in Haiti has enough food to get them through the day."
In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck on Jan. 12, living conditions have only gotten worse in Haiti.
"Now," said Hawkins, "it's [a question of] where are they going to get their next meal?"
Hawkins wanted to do something to help. He knew several nations and relief agencies were rushing food and water to Haiti. But as he and his wife, Terri, were watching a TV news report one day, they learned that many survivors of the quake were in dire need of crutches, wheelchairs, walking canes and orthopedic boots.
"And my wife said, 'I wonder if we could deliver those crutches.' It sort of took off from there."
Unbeknownst to him, a fellow in Florida, Ron Liss, had the same brilliant idea. And he was ahead of the game in terms of planning and setting up a Web site, www.crutchesforhaiti.com, similar to what Hawkins had in mind.
Now, Liss has local operations registered in at least 13 states – and Hawkins was the first from Texas.
"The organization will get stronger as soon as we can get the word out and local groups begin to organize and collect crutches," Liss said.
They've already made some headway, although it's hard to pinpoint just how successful the operation's been thus far.
"We haven't counted them," Liss said of the warehoused crutches. "We have hundreds. We don't have the time or inclination to count. We've just been in operation for two weeks."
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