coloring outside the lines

About a month ago, a historically devastated country made more history, this time for earthquake devastation. As more and more pictures and multimedia rolled in covering Haiti's plight, I grew more and more fixated by a need to Do Something.

I've been obsessing over heavy imagery and jonesing after globetrotting humanitarianism since I was little...but this time, I realized I was old enough, and maybe even had the time, to actually go. To make the kind of pictures that so constantly permeate my brain and make me determined to work hard and become a better storyteller, a more compassionate person. I suddenly understood I could really be part of the things I've always cared about on surface level.

I started praying and putting out feelers in earnest and soon got in touch with Carla Ives of Heart Cry International, an outreach organization based in Potter's House, a church right here in Mount Pleasant. I visited the Heart Cry office with my friend Taylor yesterday to help with materials for Carla's trip to Haiti this upcoming Sunday.

Carla Ives, pastor of Potter's House Family Worship Center and co-founder of Heart Cry International, discusses ways to transport relief material to Haiti Tuesday at about 6 p.m. at Heart Cry International's office on Bellows Street. The yellow boxes piled on her desk are left over from packing bags of candy, stickers, and crayons to bring with her to Haiti this Sunday. Ives has been working since 10 a.m. to get ready for her trip and has only had time to eat a packet of Swiss Cake Rolls during her busy day.

Taylor and I talk sometimes about how very shallow it seems that we [Americans or Westerners or whatever the official We may be] are all so often aware of the world's issues, yet continue to muck around absorbed by our smaller self worlds. We were so excited to be part of something Bigger.

Carla put us to work. We stuffed sandwich bags for Trauma Kits for Haitian children, each with one piece of candy, a sticker or trio of small stickers, and three crayons, preferably of different colors.

I looked at these modest offerings and thought, one piece of candy? And why the hell can't they have a full box of crayons?! I was mildly miffed, and I think Taylor was too.

We kept stuffing, and Carla collected the bag boxes on her desk to keep track of the amount finished. She wanted to bring 10,000 Trauma Kits with her.

Between finagling travel details and hashing out a home for a girl recently kicked out of her apartment, Carla told us a story. I'll paraphrase it best I can.

A few years ago, Carla and a Heart Cry team went to a remote part of Guatemala and gave out bags to children there similar to the ones we were packing. They returned a year later, and when passing out bags, she encountered a little girl clutching a bag, and thought she'd received one already.

She then realized the little girl's bag was from the prior year, and had never been opened. That little girl had never had anything of her own before.

Taylor and I were quieter then, I think, at least in our minds. As we went through boxes of baggies, I started to appreciate the vibrance of the crayons.

Crayons, left, await bagging for "Trauma Kits" for Haitian children, but are soon cleaned out, right, and more supplies are needed at Heart Cry International's office on Bellows Street. Carla Ives, director of Heart Cry International, will be traveling to Port-au-Prince this Sunday and distributing 10,000 Trauma Kits, also including sanitary items like shampoo.

The conversation moved on. We laughed over the irony of sending candy along with toothbrushes. And I thought, well...you've got to be a kid. Kids need candy. Every kid should have it. And crayons, and other simple things like sweet tastes and bright colors that these would bring.

The light began to go from the window, and the darker it got outside, the more I realized how crucial these crayons, candies, and stickers were. Just that flash of yellow wax, that slightly forbidden rush of sugar.

Things I take for granted every day, and have been since I was a kid.

I don't think I'll be traveling to Haiti this summer, but I am so glad I can be part of these baby steps. Whenever I get wrapped up in coloring very hard in the lines of my life, something usually hits me - it's the little things, the baby steps, that make the difference. I may be able to go to Uganda for a few weeks, if I can get the funds. But if not, I can color just as hard here. And I'll get to those faraway places eventually.

Taylor Pelletier, 23, of Mount Pleasant, packs boxes full of supplies for "Trauma Kits" for Haitian children at Heart Cry International's office on Bellows Street. Pelletier is folding small bags each holding a sticker, a piece of candy, and three crayons into tubes to pack them tightly.

"You know," said Taylor quietly when the rest of the room grew preoccupied, "I wonder which kid will grow up and write about these three crayons?"