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Report: Bon-Ton headed for closure

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Former first lady Barbara Bush dies at age 92

<p>DALLAS TWP. &#8212; There was the baby he held one day who was dead the next. Or the teen with a leg wound he treated only to hear it was later amputated.</p><p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t get easier,&#8221; John Giangrieco said of his three service trips to Haiti. &#8220;But you get accustomed to life in Haiti, to the idea that their world is a lot different than yours.&#8221;</p><p>At age 18, the Misericordia University freshman is preparing for his fourth trip in three years to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. He made his first trip as a junior in high school. It affected him so much, he went a second time that year, then again as a senior.</p><p>Raised in Montrose, Giangrieco decided to attend Seton Catholic Central High School in Binghamton, N.Y., where he met Sister Brigid O&#8217;Mahoney. She runs week-long trips to Haiti and he signed up.</p><p>&#8220;I really like to help people,&#8221; the soft-spoken nursing student said, &#8220;especially those who can&#8217;t help themselves.&#8221;</p><p>He found his first trip as a 16-year-old to Haiti &#8220;eye-opening. To see people who are starving, who haven&#8217;t had anything to eat or drink in a week.&#8221;</p><p>Despite that overwhelming need &#8212; or maybe because of that &#8212; he keeps going back. This year he will return with the high school group &#8220;as a chaperone,&#8221; though he&#8217;s hoping to get Misericordia to add Haiti to the list of countries offered as service trips to students.</p><p>Even the name of one place he annually visits can depress: Mother Teresa&#8217;s Home for the Sick and Dying. &#8220;They have newborns to, I want to say, 6 or 7 years old. They have malaria, Zika (virus), but even the common cold is a problem because of the poor health care.&#8221;</p><p>The litany of tragedy goes on.</p><p>&#8220;They burn all their trash on the side of the street, their trash is in the river and they use that to bathe.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;One day I was holding a baby and I had to leave, and the next day we were told that baby passed away. That&#8217;s pretty hard to take.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;People are starving, they could be dying. Babies&#8217; stomachs were bloated beyond belief.&#8221;</p><p>The week-long trips involve working &#8220;from sunrise to sunset,&#8221; moving from place to place including four medical clinics in three villages. But &#8220;we&#8217;re only bringing things like Neosporin, Band-Aids, Advil &#8212; just first aid kind of stuff.</p><p>&#8220;The last trip a kid, probably 15 years old, came in from a motorcycle accident with a huge cut, like 4 inches deep, almost to the bone, and it was infected &#8230; . We tried to sterilize it, wrap it up. Later we heard he lost the leg to infection.&#8221;</p><p><strong>&#8216;We could do more&#8217;</strong></p><p>In his book &#8220;Toxic Charity,&#8221; Robert Lupton argued such brief service trips are often counterproductive, in part because the money to get all the people to the site for a week could have bought much more if spent directly on those in need, but also because &#8220;most short-term trippers return to the same assumptions and behaviors they had prior to the trip.&#8221;</p><p>Giangrieco has not read the book and obviously does not fit that mold.</p><p>&#8220;Every day we feel we could do more, but there is only so much you can do in one day,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So I keep wanting to go back.&#8221;</p><p>Because so many health problems, like that motorcycle accident gash, would have much better outcomes with modern medicine, he also wants to get more fourth-year health-care majors to consider going. Students in nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy and others could do a lot of good even in week, he predicted. One reason: in as little as 90 minutes, the group of 12 to 18 volunteers he travels with may see as many as 150 people at a single clinic.</p><p>In his three trips so far, Giangrieco said the toughest sight was discovering there can be separate communities for those who are deaf, are missing a limb, or are widows. &#8220;There can be a couple hundred in each village,&#8221; he recalled. It hit him hard because while he doesn&#8217;t speak French, he does speak American Sign Language.</p><p>The Haitians use the same signs, so they can communicate pretty well, though sometimes they convey different meanings.</p><p>The great need, though, makes for great joy in things most would take for granted: Clean bottled water, a few soccer balls, a Frisbee.</p><p>&#8220;Everyone&#8217;s faces just lit up, they were so excited,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Seeing how happy they got just by having a few soccer balls and Frisbees.&#8221;</p><p>Do the parents of this only child approve?</p><p>&#8220;Last time my mom went with me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She was approached by one of the village leaders who said that these kids are very bright, they need to go to a high school or college.&#8221;</p><p>She arranged to pay for 10 to go to college this year. And she&#8217;s joining him again as he heads off for his fourth visit May 23.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Volunteers provide shoes to Hatians at the Onaville Medical Clinic </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_FOR-PUBLICATION-John-Giangrieco-in-Haiti-2-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Volunteers provide shoes to Hatians at the Onaville Medical Clinic </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_FOR-PUBLICATION-John-Giangrieco-in-Haiti-3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Misericordia University freshman John Giangrieco rests with a child from Mother Teresa&#8217;s Home for the Sick and Dying during a previous trip to Haiti while still in high school. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_FOR-PUBLICATION-John-Giangrieco-in-Haiti-3-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Misericordia University freshman John Giangrieco rests with a child from Mother Teresa&#8217;s Home for the Sick and Dying during a previous trip to Haiti while still in high school. </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photo </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_FOR-PUBLICATION-John-Giangrieco-in-Haiti-4-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">John Giangrieco holds a toddler at the Onaville Medical Clinic in Haiti during a previous service trip. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_FOR-PUBLICATION-John-Giangrieco-in-Haiti-4-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>John Giangrieco holds a toddler at the Onaville Medical Clinic in Haiti during a previous service trip. </caption2><photoCredit2>Submitted photo </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_TTL041818Haiti-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Misericordia University freshman Jon Giangrieco stands for a portrait in the university&#8217;s Mercy Hall. He is preparing for his fourth service trip to Haiti next month. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_TTL041818Haiti-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Misericordia University freshman Jon Giangrieco stands for a portrait in the university&#8217;s Mercy Hall. He is preparing for his fourth service trip to Haiti next month. </caption3><photoCredit3>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Misericordia student making fourth service trip to Haiti</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>YOU CAN DONATE</strong></p><p>Misericordia University freshman John Giangrieco is accepting donations prior to his fourth service trip to Haiti. He said basic supplies are welcome, but money can also help buy what&#8217;s needed when he and the group he travels with are already there.</p><p>Potential donors should contact him via email at john.giangrieco4@gmail.com</p><p>Needed items, many of which can be purchased at discount stores, include:</p><p>Neosporin</p><p>Wound care, stitching material, gauze wrap</p><p>Clothes and shoes</p><p>Medical tape</p><p>Band-Aids</p><p>Lidocain ointment</p><p>Over-the-counter painkillers</p><p>Sunglasses</p><p>Soccer balls</p><p>Alcohol wipes</p><p>Female hygiene pads</p><p>Baby cream, zinc oxide</p><p>Flip-flop footwear</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Misericordia freshman making fourth service trip to Haiti