By Jen Samuel, Managing Editor
EAST WINDSOR — Jessica Meirs hopes to make a difference.
This Saturday, she’s holding a yard sale to help Haitian orphans.
She needs to raise $5,000 before June.
As a massage therapist, who works at Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa in Manalapan, Ms. Meirs said she “would like to bring my personal knowledge of health and well being” to Haitian orphans through a humanitarian trip in June.
The trip is being organized by Random Acts, a nonprofit charity based in Oklahoma.
Thus far, Ms. Meirs has raised $1,800 toward her $5,000 goal. She launched the initial campaign March 13, 100 days prior to a planned June 20 mission to Haiti.
Ms. Meirs said she hopes to raise $3,500 on Saturday through the yard sale, located at 114 Whitcomb Road in East Windsor.
Once that goal is accomplished, Random Acts will sponsor Ms. Meirs on a trip to help rebuild an orphanage more than a year after the devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that crippled the country. Ms. Meirs is part of the Hope to Haiti Project.
She is one of more than 400 team members who have signed up online at Crowdrise.com to raise money for the campaign. “I’m independently becoming a volunteer fundraiser,” she said.
Ms. Meirs said she has made a few friends on Facebook who also are raising money for the Hope to Haiti project.
Once she raises $5,000, she becomes eligible to travel with Random Acts to Haiti and participate in its rebuilding efforts, but she is still responsible for purchasing her own roundtrip ticket to the Caribbean island.
The spirited massage therapist doesn’t seem to mind.
”I recently found myself in a position both personally and financially where I am able to give back to people, to communities,” Ms. Meirs said during a telephone interview on Tuesday. “I’ve recently become a massage therapist and I’ve realized just how much pain people are in. I’ve followed Random Acts and all of the things they’ve been doing and all the little acts of kindness that the organization has done throughout the world.”
Ms. Meirs said that after the earthquake last year, Random Acts traveled to Haiti and refurbished a dental clinic and repaired earthquake damage to an orphanage.
”They made a major impact on the aid in Jacmel,” she said.
This year, when Random Acts announced it was going back to Haiti, “it kind of hit me in my core that I was in a position to make a difference,” she said.
Ms. Meirs said she hopes to help orphans down there and create awareness that the Haitian people still need help.
The yard sale begins at 8 a.m. and will last until 6 p.m. rain or shine. In the event of a rainstorm, yard sale items will be located in a covered trailer at Ms. Meirs’ residence. However, she said, if there is a significant lack of attendance, another fundraising yard sale will take place June 4.
Additionally, 15 percent of the money raised will be going to Japan to help with their disaster relief, she said.
This year, Random Acts “will build a green multipurpose community center that will house and feed some of the hungry and homeless and educate the children of Jacmel,” she said. “They will also construct a sustainable fish farm that will provide a reliable source of protein for the children living in the community center.”
At the yard sale, Ms. Meirs will raffle off a 15-inch TV monitor donated by Best Buy. A 50/50 raffle also will be held.
To learn more online about Ms. Meirs’ fundraising efforts, visit www.crowdrise.com/hopetohaiti1/fundraiser/JessicaMeirs. For more information on Random Acts, a division of The Art Department Inc., visit www.therandomact.org/wordpress.

