b'The Snowball Effect Changing the world, one child at a timeBY TIA SWANSONLorraine Barnett, a South Orange resident who has a heart for helping educate children in Haiti. Photo by Julia Maloof Verderosa.L orraine KerryBarnett grew uptoWe have to recognize at some point that poorintheCentralWardofits God, she says. He teaches the hearts of Newark during the dark periodpeople to care for others.that eventually led to the riots.And so, while contemporaries have retired Her preacher father died whenthewarmthofsouthernsunstobaskin she was 6, leaving her mother tothe glow of a life well lived, Barnett remains raise five daughters, and eventu- ensconced in her home on Eder Terrace, still allytwoadditionalfosterdaughters,onherplotting her return to the world of paid work. own. The winner of three consecutive prizes in Essex The street on which she lived, Rutgers, islong and successful career, first as a legal aid attorney,Countys writing contest for seniors and the no longer thereerased by the building of the Uni- then a corporate lawyer and finally an entrepreneur;author of a volume of self-published poetry, she is at versity of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey she and Lee have lived for 34 years in a brick colo- work on a collection of personal essays she will also but was notorious. Her husband, Lee, who grew upnial in South Orange; they have raised seven chil- publish, with proceeds going to her projects in Haiti. in the projects of Newark, once told her that as a boydren and welcomed seven grandchildren; she is theAnd she continues to collect money for Haiti, while he and his pals were afraid to venture there. Barnettcofounder of a school in Haiti that now educates describes it as having a bar on this end and a bar on500 of the poorest children in Port Au Prince. And that end and poverty and dysfunction in between. still, she is working, always working, always plotting In a short essay she wrote of it even more vividly;to do more, to give more.her house was next to a business that was a havenMaybeitisbecausesheonlyhaseverknown for rats, and she remembers lying in bed and hear- work. Maybe it is because, despite a life that is tes-ing the rodents scurrying through the walls, certaintament to her own talent, determination, and resil-they were simply waiting for her to fall asleep so theyience, she remains profoundly grateful to all the oth-could get her. ers she credits for her success. Maybe it is because, The overwhelming memory she carries with her,despite her share of heartachethree of the seven however, is of labor. From an early age, she was al- sisters are gone, and in December her youngest child ways scrounging for work, and money, a feeling thatdied from a post-surgical blood clotshe has a deepStudents from the Cristan school. Each school has dis-has never really left. She is 73 and can look back on aand abiding faith. tinctive uniforms and colors.14/ matters magazine / fall 2021'