Joey’s Place will host a fundraiser today that will help fund the efforts of the Newman Catholic Center’s Haiti Connection.

Mark Grant, the owner of Joey’s, said he was approached by Roy Lanham, the director and a campus minister at the Newman Catholic Center, to host the annual event.

“It’s a good cause,” Grant said. “It’s for the people who are less fortunate.”

Grant said Lanham asked a local business each year to host the event and that this is the first year Joey’s has been approached to host the fundraiser.

“There are a lot of people involved in this, it’s not just us,” Grant said.

Grant said 20 percent of today’s proceeds will benefit the Haiti Connection and Haitian artwork will also be auctioned off to raise money for the volunteer group.

“It is a good opportunity to help out the community of Haiti,” Grant said.

Molly Malec, a sophomore pre-business management major, said she has been involved with the Haitian Connection group since she was a freshman at Eastern.

Malec said the Haiti Connection group visits Haiti twice a year and volunteer in different communities through the nation.

Malec said the group visits rural communities, as well as Port-au-Prince, the capitol city of Haiti, which was the location of the 2010 earthquake that devastated the city.

“We visit the same communities every year,” Malec said. “We like to walk in solidarity with the Haitians.”

Malec said the Haiti Connection sponsors four schools in Haiti, including two preschools and two elementary schools, in order to offer the children of Haiti free education.

“We are just really grateful to do this event,” Malec said.

Malec said the group is currently working on building a new school because the current one is made of cinderblock, with a cinderblock roof, and after the earthquake the children were afraid to go inside the building. Malec said the group is also working on raising the funds to build a new school with more sunlight where the children will feel safe.

Malec said the rural communities the group visits in Haiti were not as affected by the earthquake as the capitol city.

Malec said the program has received more attention since the 2012 earthquake in Haiti.

Malec said the group also has a program in Haiti to help reforestation and also has a program that gives out water filtration systems for clean water.

In addition to the other work in Haiti, Malec said the group also spends a few days visiting children at a malnourishment center, where the group helps to take care of malnourished infants and children.

Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-2812 or kjrichter@eiu.edu