Lecture offered next Thursday on Haiti

Turnier Esperance will present a lecture titled “Living in America: An Immigrant Story of Haiti: From Slavery to the 21st Century” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Polson Senior Center.

Turnier is a native Haitian who emigrated to the United States and eventually became an executive for Pfizer. After retiring he decided to establish a school in Haiti, and founded the Haitian Sports Foundation (HSF) in 2006, a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting the children of Haiti through sports activities.

HSF has been working with local social organizations to provide assistance to children between the ages of 6 through 17 with the belief that each child has the potential to succeed if the opportunity is provided to him or her. His intent is to offer Haitian boys activities that will allow them to stay away from the gangs that rule Haiti. Their recent focus is to offer technical training for the installation and maintenance of solar panels.

The HSF complex provides services to the community at large in areas of sports, education, health and a new professional school that will allow young adults to learn new trades in areas such as solar energy, refrigeration and mechanics.

Turnier’s talk will begin with a short history of Haiti, the United States’ role on the island, and his foundation. He was invited to Polson by Joanne and Jim Simpson.

Those who would prefer to watch the lecture remotely may email Haitiansportsfoundation@gmail.com for a Zoom link.