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Aspen rings in 2016 for a cause

Artists for Peace and Justice was founded in 2009 by filmmaker Paul Haggis, and when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti in January  2010, the nonprofit turned its efforts to healthcare and education in the shattered Port au Prince.

Kathryn Everett, Chief Operating Officer of APJ, is overseeing the New Year’s fundraising event - a first in Aspen for the organization.

“ The Aspen community has been really welcoming of us so far, as soon as anybody finds out about the event they are immediately supportive,” said Everett. “That's so great for us because we are new in town you know, and we know that this is such a tight knit community.”

It’s no accident that the Midnight Masquerade is located in Aspen though -  Stephane De Baets, co founder of the Chef’s Club by Food and Wine and one of the owners of the St Regis, is a supporter of the APJ mission. He was presented with the Haskell Wexler “behind the scenes award” for his support.

The fifteen hundred dollar ticket to the event included a four course meal from Chef’s Club, an opening serenade by singer and actress Katharine McPhee, and musical guests Win Butler and Régine Chassagne from Arcade Fire, performing under the fireworks at midnight.

The glitzy event comes with lofty goals for the new year. The amount raised in one evening in Aspen means a year's worth of education In 2016 the free secondary school operated by APJ called The Academy for Peace and Justice will graduate its first class of students.

Erlantz Hyppolite is a Port Au Prince native who has been working in public health in Haiti for the past decade. He is APJ’s country director for Haiti and works directly with the Academy, as well as the Artist Institute, a college that offers filmmaking and audio production along with business courses, preparing graduates to have a career in the industry that is providing so much financial support to their education.

“When you are in the school you can really see how they cherish it. Because if they did not have that opportunity, basically they would just be living in the slum trying to survive on a daily basis, surviving in the streets by begging or something like that.”

 

A world away, the caviar and fillets have been cleared from the tables, and gala attendees are bidding on auction items that run up to fifty thousand dollars.  Haggis is joined on stage at the St. Regis by several co-hosts of the event, including APJ supporter and Academy Award winning Actor Susan Sarandon, who has a classroom named after her in Haiti. She says incorporating creativity in the curriculum is vital to the organization’s mission of empowerment for future generations in Haiti.

“Imagination is the key to everything and you have to be able to imagine your future and you have to be able to find ways to tell your story - everyone wants to tell their story. So it’s very very important”

A lot of aid organizations assisted in rebuilding Haiti after the earthquake, but Hyppolite says he also saw a lot of them leave. All of the APJ programs are Haitian-run with the goal of providing long-term solutions to the poverty and loss experienced by students and teachers at the academy.

“APJ is about empowering Haitian people so they can understand and find their own way to solve their own programs,” said Hyppolite “For each kid you give access to higher education, it’s potential for a community to develop better.”

Staying involved with the community long term means that not everything has a happy ending. Kathryn Everett travels to the schools monthly and has grown close with students.

“It’s a very difficult place for our students to live. That’s just the reality of living in poverty is that you can’t escape it and unfortunately just this month we lost one of our students. He was getting ready for school outside of his home and he was shot.”

The boy died in his mother’s arms as she tried to rush him to the hospital on her motorbike.

Everett says the somber note comes with a silver lining.

“One student was texting me telling me what’s happened. And then he said Kathryn, do you think that one day Haiti will change? And for me that’s why we do this work. We have students who are living in the most difficult conditions imaginable and they are asking the right questions. And the answer is absolutely we think Haiti can change, we think we can help, we think everyone can help. We think the world can change”

With that message the attendees of the sold out fundraiser sang along, shook their hand painted maracas, and rang in the new year with a new feeling of hope for Haiti.