The efforts of a couple local teachers led to over a dozen high school basketball games raising money for a non-profit organization.

Chad and Sherry Cluver teach at Maroa-Forsyth High School, and four years ago, adopted two children from Haiti. Sherry Cluver says their adoption process was quite unique because they were able to adopt the children, and the children eventually went back to their biological families. It was through this process Cluver was connected with the organization Haitian Families First.

[audio:12513adopted1.mp3] [/audio]

Haitian Families First is an organization that helps provide families with things they need to keep their families together. Cluver explains the need for this is so great in Haiti, but there are so few social services that this organization helps bridge that gap.

[audio:12513adopted2.mp3] [/audio]

Prior to the 2010 earthquake that left Haiti devastated, Cluver explains Haitian Families First was an organization that took care of only the most needy of Haitian children, who needed to be adopted. Their goal was to still keep families together, but they would coordinate adoptions for the children in the most need first. Once the earthquake hit, that forced the children into adopted homes, leaving them free to focus on keeping these families together.

[audio:12513adopted3.mp3] [/audio]

Hoops for Haiti started with the Cluver's simply contacted members of the present Okaw Valley Conference, and asking them to join in the effort. Sherry says she knew Haitian Families First was in need of support financially, but they also needed more awareness to be raised. Cluver says the response from the schools in the Okaw and around central Illinois was overwhelmingly positive, and led to 13 teams participating in it's inaugural year.

[audio:12513adopted4.mp3] [/audio]

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Haitian Families First preserves and sustains families by helping them to find employment, supply their loved ones’ most basic needs, and provide for their children’s educations and care.

Haitian Families First assists families by providing formula for infants, helping with medical expenses and other health-related costs, and by giving tuition assistance to school-aged children. They work with families to assess their individual needs and help them to determine how they can best achieve their goals of preservation and self-sufficiency.