My New Friends

Emmert/Getty

Any girl would love a $1,000 shopping spree, however I think it meant a bit more to three girls from Haiti: Chantal Mori (17), Sarah Maurice (8) and Margarette Pierre (17). These girls, who lost limbs in the earthquake in Haiti, were brought to New York by Wyclef Jean’s organization Yéle Haiti to be fitted for prosthetic limbs. Kmart teamed up with Yéle Haiti and donated $1,000 to each girl to buy anything they wanted, from dresses to digital cameras to shampoo.

Attending this event was very meaningful and exciting to me. Watching Sarah have the time of her life while picking out toys and holding the hand of Wyclef’s wife, Claudinette, was extremely heartwarming. The best part was towards the end of the day when I was playing with an English alphabet toy, writing words with Sarah. I couldn’t believe how well she was picking up English. At that moment I received a phone call from my sister. I answered and said, “Hey! Want to say hi to my new friend Sarah?” I gave the phone to Sarah, and she immediately started having a conversation with my sister! Then later, when I was waiting with the rest of the girls, they asked me (in broken English) my age, and when we realized that all three of us are 17 years old, I felt an immediate connection. They were no longer the amputees from Haiti; they were regular teenage girls—just like me.