RALEIGH — Helen Little of Clayton has poured her heart into less fortunate children in a foreign land. On Dec. 18, State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell gave her mission a booster.
Little was the director of the Ryan Epps Home for Children, a haven built to house orphans in Haiti after a destructive earthquake rocked the nation. Though she was in her 80s then, she made dozens of trips to the impoverished nation to visit with her wards.
“We weren’t meant to take an easy life,” she said. “We are supposed to serve our fellow man.”
The organization that ran the orphanage has since dissolved, but the bylaws allow former officers to claim any outstanding assets. That’s where the Unclaimed Property Division of the Department of State Treasurer stepped in last week.
Folwell reunited Little with unclaimed money that she plans to plow right back into the Helen Little Haiti Foundation.
“It’s wonderful,” Little said of the money, more than $2,500. “It’s helping another child to go to school, and that’s what’s important. It will help educate children that don’t have a hope.”