March 2019 Belle Meade Living Magazine - Elisabeth Hasselbeck

making a difference
If you would like us to feature a nonprofit
you support, please email us at:
bellemeadeliving@n2pub.com
BML interview with resident Elisabeth Hasselbeck
Photos submitted by Elisabeth Hasselbeck
Grace by crib of twins
How the Hasselbeck Family is Teaming
Up With Danita’s Children to Help Those
Making a Difference in Haiti.
HOPE FOR HAITI CHILDREN’S CENTER
Belle Meade Living recently had the pleasure
of speaking with former television host,
businesswoman, New York Times bestselling
author, wife to Tim Hasselbeck (former
NFL Quarterback, ESPN analyst ) and mom
of three, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, about her
family’s desire to team up with and support
organizations that are committed to serving
others. We talked about The Positivity Project
(https://posproject.org), Team Red, White
and Blue (https://www.teamrwb.org), and
specifically for this article we discussed Danita’s
Children (https://danitaschildren.org).
Please tell us about Danita’s Children and
what it does:
Danita’s Children is a non-profit organization
that provides a safe haven for
vulnerable children in Haiti. It is located in
the northeast region of Haiti in the village
of Ouanaminthe, near the border of the
Dominican Republic. Their stateside office
is in Franklin, Tennessee.
Their mission is to rescue, love, and care
for orphans and impoverished children
in Haiti, meeting their needs physically,
emotionally, educationally, and spiritually
so that they are empowered to become
leaders in their communities and nation.
The vision of Danita’s Children is to provide
education, nutrition, medical and dental
care, and love to the children and families
they serve. They believe through their teachers,
mentors, and house parents they are
raising children to discover their purpose
and to become the future leaders of Haiti.
Danita’s Children serves hundreds of children
and their families by providing:
• A safe and loving home for over 80 children
Currently, 85 orphaned and abandoned
children call Danita’s Children home. In
their eight Children’s Homes, they are no
longer orphans, but cherished sons and
daughters, raised in a loving family environment
with house parents and brothers and
sisters. Each child is being raised to become
whole, healthy, confident and vibrant
young men and women.
• A Christian education that gives
vulnerable children the opportunity to
rise out of poverty
• An advanced education program to
17 graduates
• Healthy food through school meals and
a community feeding program – serving
16,000 meals each month
• Pediatric medical and dental care at Danita’s
Children Medical Center.
• Hope in Christ through the community
church and discipleship program
Our group
• Quality care in a home for 12 children with
special needs
• Employment of over 90 Haitian staff
• Sustainability through farming and agriculture
• 321 students attended Danita’s School
• 10 students joined the ranks of 30 total graduates
from the Hope for Haiti High School
• 16 students attending college in the U.S.,
Haiti, and the Dominican Republic
Medical and Dental Center
In September of 2018, a medical team
from HCA Healthcare and its affiliate The
Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial
Medical Center were the first U.S. team to
help prepare and perform pediatric surgical
operations in the newly constructed
operating room (OR) in the Danita’s Children
Medical Center.
Dr. Tom Rauth M.D., HCA Healthcare’s
National Medical Director for Children’s
Services and a practicing pediatric
surgeon, led a team of six, including
Peter Lindquist, DNP, director of nursing
Special needs home Danita’s (me and Micah)
advocacy and leadership at HCA and a
board member at Danita’s Children, Bryan
Sabbe, M.D. pediatric anesthesiologist,
a pediatric nurse anesthetist, circulating
nurse, scrub tech, and recovery room
nurse all traveled to Haiti for the four-day
medical mission.
How long have you been volunteering
with Danita’s?
Oftentimes God introduces hearts before he
introduces them by hands. I write about this
in detail in “Point of View.” In 2012, our family
and others joined our friends the Cunnion’s
at their home in Greenwich, CT, to
stuff Christmas stockings and make cards to
send to the children in Haiti. Since that time,
we’ve had a strong connection with Danita’s
Children. Soon after, I met and became
friends with Nashville native Karris Hudson,
who for the past 17 years, has called Haiti
and Danita’s Children her home. Feeling the
call of Haiti, and connecting with Danita
Estrella’s mission, Karris has cared for and
raised Danita’s young toddlers all the way
Karris, Grace and some of Danita’s Children
through to their high school graduations and
college entrances! God knew we were to be
friends, and that the connection between her
children at Danita’s and ours would continue
to grow despite the miles between our
homes. After spending time with Karris and
hearing about what Danita Estrella Watts,
founder and President of Danita’s Children
Hope for Haiti Children’s Center, has done
in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, our family wanted to
get closer to this miracle! In the summer of
2017, I traveled with our daughter Grace to
Haiti to visit them.
Why did you choose to support this
particular project?
When you have a friend that is so kind and
loving and wonderfully generous in the heart
with your children, it is natural to want to
meet her family. I could not wait to meet
Karris’ kids that she spoke of with such
loving words and see what drew her to call
Haiti “home.” Meeting her kids that we had
long prayed for, thought of and written to,
was a natural next step in our friendship.
12 Belle Meade Living • March 2019
March 2019 • Belle Meade Living 13

Please visit the website at https://danitaschildren.
org to learn more, or go to https://danitaschildren.
org/get-involved/ to find out more about how to
support this great cause, and how to become a
Child Champion!
You can also visit Danita’s Children U.S. headquarters
in Franklin, TN, and meet some of their team!
The Hasselbeck family: Elisabeth, Tim, and their kids, Grace (13), Taylor
(11) and Isaiah (9)
We had NO idea that the option to go to
Haiti would come on such short notice. On
a summer day, we received a call from my
brother-in-law, Matthew Hasselbeck, who
is a member of the Board of Directors for
Danita’s, saying that he was going to take
my best friend and sister-in-law, Sarah,
for her 40th birthday next week – he was
wondering if Grace and I wanted to go
with them. I thought, next week?
Sometimes, as I write in “Point of View,”
God uses a child to lead your heart. I
called out the front door to Grace who had
been playing flag football with her brothers.
“Grace, do you want to go to Haiti
next week to visit Karris and her kids with
your cousins? It’s next Wednesday.”
“Haiti, with my cousins and Miss Karris
and her boys next week? Heck yeah!”
Grace was ready before me. I needed to hear
her willingness and “yes” out loud to locate
mine. She was automatically prepared to
serve and learn and go, and her heart led
mine. A week later we landed in Haiti and
received one of the most loving welcomes I
have ever known. We learned a lot about the
place that had long been in our hearts. It was
an open hands and arms trip.
We discovered that packing for a trip
when it begins with unpacking expectations
and fears form your core leaves
Visiting the village
LOTS of room for God to fill the time and
your heart with what he wants you to
experience and take back.
Please tell us more about your trip to
visit Danita’s Children in Haiti.
What did you do there?
Our trip to Haiti was…one of the most
heart-opening experiences of my life.
We got to witness the safe haven of Danita’s
in action. We spent time with mothers who
sat by their child’s bedside at the medical
center and hospital while they were being
treated for malnutrition and at the same
time the loving mothers were being educated
about the feeding program and cared for
themselves by the staff. We spent time with
a mother of eight who’s twins were both being
treated for malnutrition. We took a trip
to her village and her home to get to know
her, her family and her hopes. We got to be
on Danita’s team and join them in action
bringing meals and snacks and song and
fun to children outside of Danita’s gates.
We learned something about each boy and
girl at Danita’s. I watched Grace and her
cousins play soccer, marbles, and basketball
with their new friends as if they were
brothers and sisters.
The truth is—we are family. The only task
at hand was to learn and be present and
love and be loved. Then come back home
and share about this place that is doing
real work to give the children of Haiti
hope, a family, and an actual path to be the
difference makers in this world from the
inside. This is a place that has a home for
children with special needs and sees their
inherent value. We got to hold and hug
and be with the very kids that we had been
praying for the years before our visit.
Our hearts were permanently unlocked
in a way that I did not even know they
needed to be.
Upon returning, Grace wrote on a Post-it
note: “next time Haiti” with a list of games
and projects she wanted to do with them
and what she wants to bring back to them.
She immediately reached out to her coaches
and school administrators to collect any
unused sports gear and gym uniforms to
send to Danita’s Children. It was nothing
short of amazing to see her heart immediately
engage once home to stay connected
to her friends in Haiti.
How can others get involved
with this organization?
Become a Child Champion for Danita’s
Children! We are blessed to have among
our supporters some amazing children and
adults who make extraordinary efforts to
raise funds or do special things for our
children in Haiti.
Karris Hudson and Elisabeth with two Danita’s
Children graduates.
Photo by Grace Hasselbeck
Night where we got to share our stories with the high schoolers
Grace with her sweet friends the moment we arrived
at Danita’s
Are other members of your family involved in the
charity as well?
My husband, Tim, and our sons, Taylor (11) and Isaiah
(9), have all been involved in making holiday cards
and stocking and praying for and with the children of
Danita’s. Our whole family is hoping to go together
to visit them in Haiti soon! Our boys do an extraordinary
job of telling people about their friends in Haiti
that they FaceTime with. This past Christmas we did
a Haiti-to-Nashville FaceTime Christmas carol night
where we joined with some sweet friends, the Masons
and, through the power of Wi-Fi, were able to share in
prayer and song with our friends in Haiti! We sang in
English, and then they sang the same song in Creole,
and then we would all sang together.
On March 1, our daughter, Grace, played her guitar
at Franklin art Crawl alongside her Poppa Don
Hasselbeck’s artwork to raise money and awareness
for Danita’s Children. Thanks to our kindhearted
friends who joined us!
How long have you lived in Belle Meade and what is
your favorite part of living in the neighborhood?
We moved to Nashville in the summer of 2016. It has
felt like home ever since, and our favorite part about
living in the neighborhood is that it is truly a neighborhood
with kind-hearted families we call friends.
“POINT OF VIEW”
A Fresh Look at Work, Faith, and Freedom
A new book from
Elisabeth Hasselbeck,
to be
released March 26,
is an intimate walk
of faith inviting you
behind-the-scenes
of Survivor to the
front row of The
View to gain a reflective
perspective
and discover what
it really means to
see life clearly.
14 Belle Meade Living • March 2019
March 2019 • Belle Meade Living 15