Known as a teacher, film maker and journalist. St. John's Bill Stelzer is now being called by some a hero. With a few days of the earthquake disaster in Haiti, he was on a plane to help rescue children at an orphange operated by Mercy and Sharing.
The only way to keep tabs was to monitor his Facebook page. "Went into Port au Prince today to rescue the kids trapped at the old orphanage as to reunite them with their friends at Mercy and Sharing Foundation's new orphanage north of the city," he wrote. "The house mothers sang gospel songs of thanks in the back of the pickup trucks on the journey back and there was much rejoicing when we finally arrived."
By Friday, he had "Crossed safely back over the DR border today from Haiti. Exhausted, been living in the extreme for past week or so. Now 'bout to sleep." Saturday afternoon, Stelzer was in Miami – and had seen Avatar in 3D IMAX. "Seems like a lifetime ago when I first made plans to see it here in FL in conjunction with my original trip," he said.
No one who knows Bill is surprised that he brought his camera and was both helping the children and collecting images. CNN featured the work of Mercy and Sharing by interviewing its president and co-founder, Susie Krabacher. While she explained how hard and her group were working, and the lives they were saving, the news network used Stelzer's photos to illustrate.
- Stelzer's photos on CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/01/20/intv.krabacher.orphan.aid.cnn
- Mercy and Sharing Web site: http://www.haitichildren.com/