Hearts 4 Haiti president Rev. Jim Lewis and medical clinic director Dr. Maudelin Mesadieu were both in attendance at the gala in Prospect Friday, Sept. 8. The two met 20 years ago. Hearts 4 Haiti funded Mesadieu’s schooling through medical school at Quisqueya University in Port-au-Prince. After graduating, Mesadieu decided to serve the community in the same village he grew up in northeast Haiti. Butler Eagle File Photo

Rev. Jim Lewis’ Hearts 4 Haiti nonprofit is hosting its fourth annual “Be the Difference” gala at the Butler Country Club Saturday, Oct. 3 starting at 5:30 p.m. Funds from ticket sales benefit the nonprofit.

Tickets are a minimum of $125 each, and can be purchased through the Hearts 4 Haiti website. Reservations are capped at 225. Requests for tickets are available until Saturday, Sept. 26.

According to Lewis, the Hearts 4 Haiti initiative began shortly after a series of trips he took to Haiti in 2002 and 2003 while he was attending Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. During one of those trips, one of his traveling companions, Don Simmons, introduced Lewis to an aspiring Haitian doctor named Maudelin Mesadieu.

“Don struck up a relationship with a young Haitian who wanted to become a doctor,” Lewis said. “When we came back, he supported him financially for a little bit and then it became too much for him, and he brought (Mesadieu) to our church.”

That church, the Branchton United Methodist Church — which has since become Branchton Community Church — made it a mission to raise money to get Mesadieu through medical school. It took nearly a decade, but Mesadieu ultimately graduated.

“Once we got him through and he was graduating, Don and I went back down to Haiti to Port-au-Prince to attend his graduation,” Lewis said. “He said he was going to open a clinic in the small town where we met him.”

Each year since 2013, Lewis has regularly made at least one trip to Haiti per year — usually more than one — to check up on Mesadieu’s medical practice in the small town of Mombin Crochu. Thanks in part to support from Hearts 4 Haiti, the clinic has steadily grown.

“At first he rented a 24-by-24 building. That's where he started out seeing patients, and that’s pretty much all he had,” Lewis said. “Since then, we’ve built a two-story clinic with a guest house on the second floor.”

While it isn’t guaranteed, Lewis is hoping to bring Mesadieu to Butler as the guest of honor for the gala.

“We try to get him up every year,” Lewis said. “It doesn't always happen, but I believe this year we'll get him in, and he will be able to talk to us about what's going on. We try to use the gala as a celebration of what we’ve done in the past year.”