Voices for Haiti- Concert at Lawton, Oklahoma
MITCH MEADOR
The Lawton Constitution
Apr 28, 2010
Lawtonians with ties to the quake-ravaged nation plan a concert fundraiser on Saturday (May 1st, 2010) at Great Plains Coliseum, OK.
Turn back the clock to 4:50 p.m. Jan. 12.
What began as a slow rumble in Port-au-Prince would end, just 35 seconds later, by stripping away nearly everything that an already poor nation had accumulated.
The Haiti the world once knew is now gone.
Nearly 300,000 people perished in one of the deadliest earthquakes of all time. No church was spared, and the business district was gutted.
The only way to help the displaced, the homeless, the people living in tents on the charity of the others, is to give them hope and another chance at self-sufficiency. That’s where the family of one Lawton couple steps in.
Both Tony and Michele Garoute have personal ties to Haiti, and both have suffered heartbreaking personal losses as a result of the quake. That’s why they want to raise funds this Saturday to make a difference in the condition of the people living there.
The graves of Michele’s daughter and parents were swept away by the quake. Tears well up in Michele’s eyes when she says there is not even a place where she can stand and pray over their remains.
Tony said his family home in Haiti was destroyed, but a far greater loss was Fondation Tiga, a school for artists founded by his father, Jean-Claude “Tiga” Garoute.
It was the one place where the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor could mingle freely, said Michele. Tony said his late father believed that anyone could create from within, regardless of their level of education, and he invited peasant farmers to rotate freely through stations where they could play the drums, paint, make ink drawings or work with clay. Though he himself was an abstract painter, “Tiga” dreamed of making ceramics the national art of Haiti, even above painting.
Who are Tony and Michele Garoute?
Tony came to the United States as a teenager in the bicentennial year of 1976. He served 23 years in the U.S. Army, retired as a sergeant first class and now works as a contractor in the Fort Sill’s furnished property office.
Michele was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., but her parents were from Haiti, and she spent her teen years in Haiti’s nextdoor neighbor, the Dominican Republic. She has visited relatives in Haiti and followed their stories with great interest since the quake. A Spanish teacher at MacArthur High School, she finds that for every story of hope there are three stories of sadness. But she says the people of Haiti live on hope and need it to keep going.
Unity Is Strength
The Garoutes’ 18-yearold son, Pascal, has never been to Haiti, but he was so moved by what he was seeing on the news in January that he sat down at his keyboard and wrote a rap song, “L’Union Fait la Force (Unity Is Strength).” The title comes from the motto on the Haitian flag. The song can be downloaded from his page at myspace.com/pascalgaroute, but people who attend the Saturday afternoon fund-raiser in the Great Plains Coliseum will get to hear him perform it live, sometime around 4 p.m.
This may be their only chance, as he’s joined the Air Force. He leaves July 11 for basic training at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, and will go on to advanced individual training at Lackland AFB, Texas.
Director Kris Forsyth has plans for the whole Garoute family to be on stage Saturday, either separately or together. Tony and Michele have written some 150 songs under the name TMG, and they hope to have CDs of their music available to patrons who come Saturday. Their 11-year-old son, Claude, will lead the crowd in singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and Lancy Cleophat, whose mother died in the earthquake, will sing the national anthem of Haiti, “La Dessalinienne,” and several other numbers.
Aunt flying in from Haiti
Tony’s mother and sister, Josette François and Michelle Laroche, are flying in with an aunt who survived the destruction of her home in Haiti, and Michelle will be appearing under her artist’s name, Klode.
The MacArthur High School Key Club was to have sponsored this concert when it was originally planned in February, but power outages caused by the ice storm forced them to postpone the event. Michele says Key Club members are still playing an important role by donating refreshments for sale at the event.
Tony said their plan all along was “Let’s do something for Haiti, and let’s find somebody we can give the money to. We want the money to go to those who need it most.”
ACTIONAID USA
Michele said they selected ACTIONAID-USA to be the beneficiary of concert proceeds because her aunt is on the ground in Haiti, and she said this is the agency that is actually doing the most good. It’s giving survivors clean water, meals and tents in which to sleep.
Michele said she spent most of spring break trying to get in touch with her aunt, Dr. Gihieslaie Jean-Baptiste. When she finally did, her aunt told her, “Unless you see for yourself the devastation that is here, what is being shown on the news is nothing compared to what is going on.” Aftershocks are still happening today, and the rainy season is in full swing, with its ever-present danger of mudslides. As Michele said, the earthquake has dropped out of the news, but the need is still great.
DATE: Staturday, May 1, 2010
Location: Great Plains Coliseum,
920 S. Sheridan Road
Lawton, OK 73505.
For more information of the concert: click here