A mission to help

A Culpeper greenhouse operator and builder — who has an extensive history helping Haitians with the simple necessities in life — is scrambling to get to the poverty-stricken country devastated by Tuesday’s deadly earthquake.

Joe Van Wingerden, 57, of Stevensburg, runs Double Harvest, a Christian-based, family-operated, 200-acre compound 10 miles east of the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince. He has plans to leave today and arrive sometime this weekend.

“Joe won’t rest until he gets to the compound to see that everyone’s OK,” his wife, Georgia, said Wednesday. “I think if he could swim there, he would.”

Joe, who owns and operates Prins USA on Carrico Mills Road with his family, will take a two-hour flight to Miami before flying to the Dominican Republic.

After that, Joe and his son, Joey, will endure an eight-hour drive to their destination.

The 25 people who live and work on the compound are all reportedly doing fine, according to Georgia. But the ret of the country wasn’t as fortunate.

The Associated Press reports more than 100,000 could be dead, but no one really knows the actual number.

Double Harvest features a 500-student school with a Sponsor a Child program, medical/surgical clinic, church, tilapia farm and greenhouse.

Christian businessman Aart Van Wingerden, now deceased, created Operation Double Harvest in 1981 in Haiti in an effort to establish an agricultural project to help the local residents live and prosper independently.

Georgia said her father-in-law’s motto was “You can’t preach to them unless you feed them.”

“Haitians need so much help,” she said. “They’ve become used to receiving aid, so they don’t know how to take care of themselves. This mission is trying to change that.”

Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, is located on the western tip of Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Greater Antilles.

The 30-year-old church-based mission employs 150 people on about $50,000 a month, with support from family members and donations.

Gary Close, commonwealth’s attorney for Culpeper County, has twice made the trip to Double Harvest.

“The mission is working out great. The programs teach people how to be businessmen and to create their own livelihood,” said Close, who assisted with building the medical clinic. “It’s working out very well.”

Without government aid, the Van Wingerdens have been able to create a safe haven and teach the people of Haiti how to survive.

Georgia also added that, over the years, Stevensburg Baptist Church has sent several youth groups to Haiti to help build the clinic.

“They are big into this project,” she said.

Want to help?
If you’d like to contribute money to the relief efforts in Haiti, send a check to: Double Harvest, 55
S. Main St., Oberlin, OH, 44074, c/o John Van Wingerden. For more information, call the Van Wingerdens at (540) 399-9600.