Miracle Worker

A nun gives Haiti

A Thanksgiving gift

An Episcopal nun now stationed in Boston had a very special Thanksgiving last week--and so did the people she had helped. In 1951 Sister Anne Marie Bickerstaff, a native of Richmond, Va., had gone to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to teach at a missionary school. She became impressed by the musical ability of some of her students, and was distressed that the island had no music school, no concert hall and no national orchestra.

Sister Anne Marie set to work. Telling all who would listen that "I am certain the good Lord and good friends will hear me," she began rounding up used instruments. She organized the most promising students from her Holy Trinity Missionary School into a group and persuaded a local customs inspector to serve as conductor.

As word of the nun's project spread, small donations began flowing in from around the world. By 1971 the orchestra had become known as the Holy Trinity Philharmonic. The nun even persuaded members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to visit Haiti to work with the Philharmonic. In 1976 she managed to raise $60,000 to send the 60-member orchestra to Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony in the Massachusetts Berkshires.

Last week, on Thanksgiving Day, Haiti finally got its concert hall and music school. Diplomats and Haitian Cabinet members were present for the dedication of the building, which contains a 500-seat auditorium. Five members of the Boston Symphony were also there, and so, of course, was Sister Anne Marie.

The nun is now the mother superior of the Society of St. Margaret in Boston. "She is a fantastic woman," said Haitian Composer Ferrere Laguerre. "Very persistent, with great persuasive powers."

To build the Holy Trinity School of Music, the nun had raised $175,000.

Asked why she would spend so much money on music in such a poor nation, Mother Anne Marie replied: "We must feed the soul as well as the body."

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