While the off-season conditioning program kicks off on Monday, offensive tackle Winston Justice and free safety Quintin Demps will be in the devastated region of Port Au Prince, Haiti to team up with the Mission of Hope to volunteer and aid with the relief efforts. Their main mission will be to help build an extension on an orphanage. On January 12, an earthquake that registered 7.0 on the Richter scale claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, according to the Haiti government, injured another 300,000 and left around a million people homeless.
It is also estimated by the Haiti government that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings either collapsed or were severely damaged. The buildings in Haiti were simply not designed to handle such a powerful earthquake.
"I've never really been around mass destruction like that," Justice told Geoff Mosher of the Wilmington News-Journal. "I'm there to serve."
Demps told Mosher that after his rough childhood in a San Antonio neighborhood, he can relate on a small level to what the children are experiencing there now.
"I didn't go without eating some nights. I fell asleep to sounds of gunshots on some nights," he said. "In that sense, I can relate. But I know (in Haiti), it won't be nothing like what I went through. It'll make me appreciate more when I get back."
According to Mosher, Justice and Demps each donated money shortly after the disaster. Justice actually had donated money to the orphanage prior to the earthquake. The two of them will not experience any luxuries while in Haiti. They will eat if there are enough rations leftover and sleep on cots, floors or even the outdoors if necessary.
The Eagles have donated $50,000 to the relief efforts in Haiti. In addition, Jeffrey and Christina Lurie chartered a plane to the U.S. so that some children could receive some much-needed medical care.
-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 11:15 a.m., March 14
