Though the earthquake disaster that killed thousands of people in Haiti was hundreds of miles away, its effect has made it to the UNF campus.

Samantha LaMartine, a senior psychology student, is out of reach from a lot of her family who live in Haiti.

LaMartine left Haiti when she was five years old with her mother to come to the United States.

Her mother, who lives in West Palm Beach, hasn’t been able to reach most of the family. And another thing that worries LaMartine is that a four-bedroom house in Port-au-Prince, the nations capitol,owned by her mother has been destroyed.

It was being occupied by close family and friends who they  have not heard from since the disaster,  she said.

LaMartine is worried that people don’t understand what has just happened.

“I don’t think people are aware of nor do they comprehend the magnitude of what has taken place,” she said. “This has really hurt the Haitian community.”

LaMartine was relieved late yesterday to hear her grandfather, who resides in New York but was visiting family in Haiti, is alive and safe.

It is still too early to tell, but some death toll estimates are in the hundreds of thousands.

Lamartine also attended an emergency Hope for Haiti meeting Wednesday night where about 15 students held a near two-hour meeting to discuss a UNF relief effort.

To begin the meeting, the group leader played a photo gallery of recent pictures of the earthquake, which left a sobering effect on the faces of the group.

The students also have planned a candle light vigil for Wednesday night. They  plan to set up canned food donations boxes throughout campus in a team effort with a larger off campus charity organization Heroes for Haiti.

Anyone with family or friends in Haiti, Please contact the Spinnaker at sports@unfspinnaker.com or call 904 910 2735.

More to come….