RHINE — St. Lawrence Hall, Rhine, will host a chili dinner on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. All free-will donations will benefit Our Lady of Perpetual Help Orphanage in Haiti.

Immaculate Conception (Botkins) parishioner Chelsea Weatherhead Friesthler has made several trips to Haiti to visit the orphanage and its founder, the Rev Andre. Andre even traveled to Botkins to celebrate Chelsea’s wedding to Nate Freisthler in 2014, and the couple traveled to Haiti again late last year.

Andre has long planned for the orphanage to move to a larger facility, but the project assumed crisis status when the priest learned that the landlords at the current orphanage will evict the orphans as of May 2016. The Freisthlers were recently informed that much construction remains to be done at the new site, and funding is needed as soon as possible.

The Freisthlers and their families and friends quickly went into action to organize the chili dinner benefit this month. The meal will include homemade chili cooked over an open fire, hot dogs, corn bread, crackers, and drinks, all for free-will donations.

St. Lawrence Hall is located at 16053 Botkins Road, two miles east of Botkins at Rhine.

The following day, Oct. 18, after the 10:30 a.m. Mass at Immaculate Conception in Botkins, carryout containers of chili will be sold and a bake sale will be held.

For more information, call Jenny Weatherhead (Chelsea’s mother) at 937-693-2331.