Page 50 July 30, 2021 DAN’S PAPERS danspapers.com
Wings Over Haiti Hamptons Event
Benefits New School
BY OLIVER PETERSON
When artist Jonathan Nash Glynn landed his
single-engine Cessna on a dirt strip in Jacmel,
Haiti for the first time after the devastating
2010 earthquake that killed some 250,000 people
and destroyed or damaged about the same number
of residences, he found himself facing what many
would describe as hell on earth. What was already
the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere had
suffered “remarkable devastation,” according to
Glynn, who had made the precarious journey with a
cabin full of gas cans to get him home, in what was
essentially a flying bomb—with a smooth landing
far from guaranteed—just to see how he could help.
He has since dedicated his life to Haiti’s children
through Wings Over Haiti, his not-for-profit organization
that is raising money for the cause with a special
Hamptons Artists for Haiti benefit on Saturday,
August 7 at East Hampton Airport.
“They were doing amputations with carpentry
saws and they didn’t have any anesthesia—it was
brutal what I saw,” Glynn recalls of the traumatic
scenes that committed him to the relief effort. “I
spent the next 17 days going to Dominican Republic,
going to Puerto Rico, wherever I could, to get surgical
supplies and anesthesia,” he adds, describing his
small plane as a “valuable tool” that made it possible
to get supplies in and out of the country.
Plenty of money and goods were coming in from
various charities, groups and individual donors, but
they had no way to get the vital donations to those
who needed them. “I was securing these supplies,
they paid for it, and we were delivering it all over
NEWS & VIEWS
JONATHAN NASH GLYNN WITH WINGS OVER HAITI STUDENTS. PHOTO: COURTESY WOH
WINGS OVER HAITI STUDENTS. PHOTO: COURTESY WOH
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