Posted by Boua Xiong
The pictures and stories that continue to pour out of Haiti show a nation that will take months and even years to rebuild. For the Northland's NewsCenter weekend anchor Julie Pearce, who has spent the last four years of her life telling stories, those pictures were enough to make a life changing decision.
“I'd sit there and produce the show and read the headlines and you know download the stories and sit there and read the headlines to the audience and it just broke my heart knowing that there's something that I can actually do, that I actually have the skills to do something about what I'm reading and what I'm telling to our audience,” Pearce said.
Pearce became a registered nurse last summer after graduating from St. Scholastica. Earlier this week she got the green light to join the Evangelical Free Church of America Touch Global Crisis Response team.
“I'll be joining the team there of medical professionals at the Hospital. And this hospital that's operating is where all the refugees are going right now,” she said.
Pearce is just one of many other Northland medical professionals who are going to Haiti to share their skills.
Dr. Paul Severson, a graduate of UMD's medical school, helped build a hospital years ago in Haiti. The recent disaster has his hospital working in overtime.
"We've sent in many trauma teams and I've helped as sort of the coordinator to help these teams get in there, they don't know anything about Haiti and getting in is difficult,” Severson said.
For Pearce, who only found out this week that she'd be leaving, nerves are starting to sink in. But so is the realization that a greater calling is on its way.
“I'm at a point in my life where my life where my faith has never been stronger. My journey is in God's hands and I just absolutely believe that I'll be taken care of,” Pearce said.
She doesn't know how long she'll be gone but one thing is for sure, the Northland will be waiting for her when she comes back.
Pearce's last show will be on Sunday.
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