Dance party benefit to help Eben Ezer School in Haiti

February 26, 2014 2:00 AM
PORTSMOUTH — The fifth annual Caribbean Nights Dance Party to benefit the Eben Ezer School in Haiti will take place Saturday, March 22, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 168 in the city.
Money raised will be used to pay teachers, buy uniforms and educate children at the school in the rural town of Milot, Haiti.
Latin and reggae tunes will be provided by Combo Sabroso, a Boston band that plays the event each year.
"We love playing this gig because not only are the people who come ready for an awesome dance party, but also because we are all learning about and helping kids in Haiti who might not ever learn to read or write without our help," said Matt Jenson of Arlington, Mass., band leader and University of New Hampshire alumnus who is currently on the piano faculty at Berklee College of Music.
Local restaurants will contribute Indian and Mexican food, as well as chowder, baked goods, meatballs and flatbread pizza.
A Latin dance instructor will be available to teach a few steps early in the evening for those who want to pick up the basics.
This year's dance will also include a video production by local high school student Georgia Barlow of South Berwick, Maine, who traveled during a recent school vacation week to the Eben Ezer School.
The dance party begins at 7 p.m. with the video and a short update on the progress made thanks to the hundreds of Seacoast residents who have been involved, including about a dozen who have been to the school.
Dancing starts at 8 p.m.
The first Caribbean Nights Dance Party was held in 2010, when the Eben Ezer School had only 100 students and four classrooms. Since then it has grown threefold. Dozens of families in the Seacoast and beyond have signed up to sponsor students at the school, and through the dance provide the operating funds that allow the school to continue.
The video and slide presentation will include an update on efforts to build a guesthouse to help the school create its own income and train vocational students. York Rotarian Paul Salacain, who was in Milot in February, met with Rotarians there and investigated options for building a water tank and buying materials.
The guesthouse is being designed by Mike Lassel of Lassel Architects in South Berwick.
Tickets are being sold at Black Bean in Rollinsford, Ceres Bakery in Portsmouth, Nature's Way in South Berwick, Full Circle Community Thrift Store in Eliot, Maine, G. Willikers! in Portsmouth and RiverRun Books/Lils in Kittery, Maine.
Checks made out to Life and Hope Haiti can be mailed to 37 Highland Ave., South Berwick, ME 03908. Tickets cost $20.