Jenice Armstrong: Quake causes 'Bird' fight

A FIGHT may be brewing in the home of Eagles free agent Max Jean-Gilles. His wife Maggie Jean-Gilles has been calling airlines, trying to book a flight to Haiti so that she can help with earthquake relief efforts there, but Max is worried about her safety.

Maggie is the executive director of a newly-opened school in Haiti that hasn't been heard from since the earthquake hit and she feels compelled to witness firsthand the devastation that has been wrought on the school and the rest of the nation.

"People say to me, 'What are you going to do when you are over there?' " Jean-Gilles said yesterday. "But the main thing is that they see we are there. Because they are used to people starting something and then not finishing it.

"I owe it to the kids and I owe it to the family," said Jean-Gilles, who was born in the U.S. but schooled in Haiti. "It's very frustrating. It's very sad. These people were just starting to have a high life and now this happens."

Last month, I wrote about Maggie's efforts to raise money for the new school in a remote section of Haiti that hadn't had a school in years. In the column, she'd described the area's heartbreaking poverty - there's no electricity or running water - and her efforts to raise funds for the Genecoit Vertus School of Excellence, which opened in the village of Francois on Sept. 7.

The conditions she talked about sounded hellish even before Tuesday's catastrophic earthquake hit, killing upward of 100,000 people and destroying hospitals and the president's palace. Maggie, the mother of a 2-year-old, was in a yoga class when the calls started coming in with the horrific news - her oldest brother, Fecha, 32, is missing, as is a cousin of Max's, as well as numerous other family members. Relatives suspect that Max's cousin may be buried in the rubble of what had been the family home.

Genese Vertus, founder/CEO of the Florida-based Passion Rescue Mission, which opened the school, plans to leave for Haiti tomorrow, and Maggie hopes not to be far behind - but, first, she has to deal with Max, who's in the process of moving his family out of their home in Magnolia, N.J., and heading to Miami to train. Like spouses of aid workers everywhere, he's torn about his wife rushing to aid a place where fresh water is in short supply and decaying bodies line the streets.

"She went a couple of times before but now, what can she do?" he said. "I don't think there's a stable government right now. I understand, but she has to think calmly. Right now, she's reacting emotionally."

"All you can do is pray and send some money," he said. "They don't have any power right now. Once it hits nightfall, what's going to happen? Everyone's going to be in the streets again."

To learn more about the Genecoit Vertus School of Excellence, call 239-633-4987 or log onto PassionRescueMission.org. Donations can be sent to the Passion Rescue Mission, 2711 Park Windsor Drive #301, Ft. Myers, Fl. 33901.