 "Photo: Braden VanDragt | The Spectator")
Katie Hultquist’s first weeks on the job were rougher than one might expect.
The Seattle University alumna had just become Northwest regional director of Friends of the Orphans—a nonprofit with orphanages, hospitals and schools scattered throughout nine countries—when the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti.
Friends of the Orphans operates an orphanage, free pediatric hospital, street services and other social services in Haiti. After the quake, the organization’s Fr. Wasson Center in Petion-Ville, Haiti was completely demolished.
Molly Hightower, a 22-year-old volunteer with the organization from Port Orchard, Wash., was found dead in the rubble a few days later. So was Ryan Kloos, a 24-year-old brother of a Friends of the Orphans volunteer.
And suddenly, an organization committed to raising orphaned children was operating a disaster relief effort that was quickly overwhelmed.
“It was like a baptism by fire,” said Hultquist, who received her master’s degree in nonprofit leadership from Seattle U in 2002.
But as news spread of the disaster in Haiti, Hultquist’s office in Bellevue has become an epicenter of donations and renewed interest in Haiti.
In the Northwest, Friends of the Orphans has received at least $100,000 in donations since the earthquake. Nationwide, donations exceed $600,000.
Traffic on the organization’s Web site jumped three and half times that of its previous record.
Of the Northwest donations, $36,000 has been given in Hightower’s memory. The University of Portland graduate was known by many in the region, including Seattle University students.
Hightower’s family has shifted to raising awareness about Haiti and Friends of the Orphans.
“Every time I talk to Molly’s dad, he says ‘It’s all about the kids, it’s all about the kids,’” Hultquist said.
That focus on the children is mirrored by Joe Cotton, a pastoral studies graduate student at Seattle U who was a board chair for Friends of the Orphans.
Cotton said he was devastated by the news of the earthquake.
“I immediately thought about the kids,” he said.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Seattle U’s Matteo Ricci College, Cotton saw a performance by a dance group of children from Friends of the Orphans. He was hooked.
Soon he was sponsoring a 14-year-old boy in Nicaragua through Friends of the Orphans. He paid the boy—now his godson—a visit and promised he would come back and also learn Spanish.
“I got back to the U.S. and realized I made two enormous promises to an orphan child in a third-world country,” Cotton joked.
He took three months leave from work and volunteered with Friends of Orphans, just like Hightower.
Once a volunteer or an orphan within the organization, you’re a member of the worldwide Friends of the Orphans family, Hultquist and Cotton explained.
Children in the organization’s orphanages never go up for adoption like children do in the U.S. Instead they are schooled and brought up, and when they’re old enough, the orphans are expected to give one year of service back. The organization is still searching for alumni of the orphanages and the volunteer programs in Haiti.
In the Dominican Republic, children in Friends’ orphanages are packing up supplies to send to Haiti. In the Northwest, benefits in Hightower’s name are being organized and donations continue to pour in from friends, family and strangers.
“They know it’s what Molly would’ve wanted,” Hultquist said. “Even those of us who didn’t know her feel like we’ve met her now.”
Joshua may be reached at editor@su-spectator.com.
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