Toledoans react to devastating Haiti earthquake

Sammy and Ashley Adebiyi who just returned from visiting Haiti, at their Toledo home Wednesday. The couple are trying to adopt 12-year-old Haitian girl Bebe Andrerese but haven't heard news of her.

When Pastor Sammy Adebiyi heard the news about the devastating earthquake in Haiti, he couldn't help but see the faces of the 60 orphans he had visited with only a week before.

"That's the part that makes it hard, the faces and names of the kids we were with," he said. "It makes it a little close to home."

He led a group of about 30 University of Toledo students who returned last week from volunteering about 3 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, said Mr. Adebiyi, of Vineyard Church in Toledo.

The students from Mr. Adebiyi's church group spent time at an orphanage in Leogane, Haiti.

"It was just a shock, you really don't believe it," Mr. Adebiyi said.

Only hours after news first hit the Toledo area Tuesday evening about the earthquake, which was a 7.0 magnitude, Perrysburg-based ISOH/IMPACT is collecting relief items for the victims.