By Dale M. King
BOCA RATON – Officials at Lynn University in Boca Raton have received word that the U.S. Department of State has confirmed the death of one of four Lynn students missing in earthquake-torn Haiti.
The university released a statement saying the government had contacted the family of Courtney Hayes to confirm her passing. She was one of four Lynn students still unaccounted for in Haiti. Two faculty members and the three other students remain missing.
“The news we received this evening was not the news we ever wanted to hear,” said Lynn University President Kevin Ross. “Courtney Hayes was an inspiration in life, and in death will be remembered for her giving spirit, warm smile and so much more.”
“Our prayers,” he said, “are with the Hayes family this evening, as well as with Matt, the Sears family, and all of Courtney’s loved ones and admirers here in Boca Raton, in Georgia, and around the world.”
A service for Courtney will be held in Georgia.
Fourteen members of the Lynn community went to Haiti Jan. 12 to aid the poverty-stricken population as part of a “Journey of Hope” mission with partner Food for the Poor, an international nonprofit. Soon after they arrived, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck the island. Eight members of that group were evacuated from the country and returned to campus three days after the quake.
Still missing are students Britney Gengel, 19, of Rutland, Mass.; Stephanie Crispinelli, 19, of Katonah, N.Y. and Christine Gianacaci, 22, of Hopewell, N.J. and faculty members Patrick Hartwick, 53, dean of the Ross College of Education; and Richard Bruno, 59, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Education.
Officials say the group from Lynn was presumably at the Hotel Montana in Port-Au-Prince when the quake struck. Search and rescue efforts were concentrated there, and Lynn University sent its own team of searchers to find the missing students and faculty.
In an earlier statement, Ross said that students were in Haiti a day and a half before the quake – and had already begun to dole out rice at a distribution center and to hold the hands of sick children in a dilapidated orphanage.
The university, Ross said, is grieving with the families who are “certainly carrying the heaviest load. In the days and weeks ahead, we will be focused on healing.”
Ross said the university will continue to “encourage our students to live, work and serve abroad as well as here at home. It is an important part of who we are, and therefore, a defining characteristic of our graduates.”
“But we’ll also continue this work because we owe it to our six. Our students will continue to feed the poor, aid the sick, and comfort the hurting — and they will spread the word about the things they see and the needs they encounter.”
“They will do this, whether I think they should or not, because it is a passion that has been cultivated on this campus in large part by the very students who were serving on that Journey of Hope.”