What impacted your life two and a half years ago?

January 12^th 2010 Chris Rakunas was unaware of the events that were soon to impinge on his life.

On Tuesday, January 12th 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook the island nation of Haiti. The United States Agency for International Development estimated the death toll to be somewhere between 46,000 and 85,000 people, with 220,000 injured and over 1.5 million homeless. Many organizations, both from the U.S. and abroad, responded to the appeal for humanitarian aid.

Dr. Stephen Schroering and Chris Rakunas went to Haiti to deliver over 21,000 pounds of medical and surgical supplies to the New Life Children’s Home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and several other hospitals. In Tears for the Mountain, Chris recounts his mission to deliver these supplies to the earthquake-ravaged island nation. Chris discusses both the triumphs and heartbreaks of the trip, the problems with distributing aid in a nation lacking the most basic infrastructure, and his unexpected encounter with a notorious Haitian warlord.

Chris Rakunas is a native of the Los Angeles, California area. He went to school at UC Berkeley, where he studied Molecular and Cell Biology. He moved back to Los Angeles to attend business school at USC's Marshall School of Business where he was on the Dean's List.

Rakunas spent 6 months travelling the world after finishing business school, including time climbing the Great Wall of China, living on the steppes of Mongolia, traveling on the trans-Siberian railroad, hitchhiking through the Baltic States, and living in Istanbul.

After a long career in healthcare, he and his wife, Darcey, moved to western Oklahoma. Chris Rakunas was the winner of the Silver award at the Dearborn Street Book Festival in 2012.

This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

In an interview with Dee at Book Readers on August 6th, Chris illuminates his reasons for going to Haiti and later his book: 

Tears for the Mountain

Delivering Hope after the Earthquake in Haiti