Britney Gengel smiles with children at an orphanage on the day of Haiti’s level 7 earthquake --- In 2010, 316,000 people lost their lives in the level 7 earthquake that shook Haiti to its core. Among them was 19-year-old Britney Gengel, a Lynn University student who was visiting Haiti to do humanitarian work. On the morning of Jan. 12th, she texted her family, expressing joy and delight with the people she had met:

“They love us so much and everyone is so happy,” she wrote. “They love what they have and they work so hard to get nowhere, yet they are all so appreciative. I want to move here and start an orphanage myself.”

This was the last message Leonard and Cherylann Gengel, would ever receive from their daughter. Later that day, the ground shook and the hotel she was in collapsed. She and 5 other Lynn University students and professors were killed.

The construction of Be Like Brit, a non-profit dedicated to poverty stricken children, began in December of 2011.