B.C. students arrive safely from Haiti

Several B.C. students and their chaperones, who where stranded in Haiti after last week's earthquake, have arrived safely back in Canada after being airlifted out by the Canadian military.

The students and chaperones were rescued by the Canadian Forces from a remote town about 50 kilometres outside Port-au-Prince, where they had been staying at a missionary compound after the quake.

The students arrived home in two groups, with the first 17 and three chaperones landing at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport early Monday morning as part of group of 180 evacuees on a Canadian military aircraft.

The second group of six students and their chaperones arrived at the airport on a flight around 10 a.m. ET. They are expected to spend the night in Montreal and fly home to B.C. on Tuesday morning.

Pat Dooley, the superintendent of the Kootenay Lake School District, welcomed the news of the group's safe arrival in Montreal.

"It's just incredible. It's just been great news. It's been a harrowing experience, especially for the parents," said Dooley. The students have already begun plans to start fundraising as soon as they get home, according to Dooley.

Still on a mission to help

The 23 Grade 12 students, teachers and volunteers from Mount Sentinel School in South Slocan — a town of about 360 people in the Kootenay region of southeastern B.C. — had arrived in Haiti on a humanitarian mission just hours before the 7.0-magnitude quake hit last Tuesday.

After the earthquake struck, the group moved to a nearby mission along with members of a Kootenay Christian Fellowship group, where they remained stranded for five days, leaving parents and friends back in Canada very anxious about their situation.

A school secretary suffered at least one broken rib, but no other injuries were reported. The students and their seven chaperones had been sleeping outdoors on plywood and were robbed of about $10,000.

While at the mission waiting to leave, the students reportedly started helping in the local rescue efforts and even pooled their money to buy rice to feed Haitians near the mission.

'I think they may be their own best support system.' —Parent Claire Dickin

Defence Minister Peter MacKay told a news conference in Ottawa on Sunday that a Canadian CH-146 Griffon helicopter assisted in moving some members of the group. Others were taken by two buses to the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince, and then eventually to the airport for the flight home.

Claire Dickin, the mother of student Jonathan Couture, said the students will have counsellors to help them deal with their experiences when they get home, but they may best qualified to help each other.

"They are in a group and they all experienced the same things. I think they may be their own best support system. When they're in moments of meltdown, they'll have a friend close by that understands intimately what they went through," said Dickin.