Lead singer for Creed, Palm Beach County resident, returns from Haiti
Joe Capozzi Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010
Rock singer Scott Stapp was among the celebrities lending a helping hand to earthquake victims and since he's come back from Haiti, he said he'll never be the same
"It was a life-changing experience. I've never quite experienced anything close to what I saw there," said the lead singer of Creed during an interview Monday.
Stapp, 36, also a Palm Beach County resident, returned Friday night from the weeklong trip on behalf of his charity, With Arms Wide Open Foundation.
He is one of several musicians in the DC3 Music Group charity organization that helped pay for and load a plane full of supplies for earthquake victims. But Stapp went one step further.
He travelled to Haiti to join his sister-in-law, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat of Boca Raton, and their fellow volunteers from Boca Raton's Spanish River Church.
Stapp said he gathered patients for Nesheiwat to treat at a makeshift camp in the village of Leogane before they helped more patients at an outdoor hospital in Port-au-Prince.
"They need just about everything we take for granted here in the United States,' said Stapp, who co-wrote the song With Arms Wide Open, which won a best Rock Song Grammy in 2001.
"All the hard-core trauma needs have been taken care of. Now it's all about preventing the spread of disease, food, water sanitation, clothing shoes.'
Since he's returned, Stapp hopes to continue spreading awareness of Haiti with a goal "to develop a plan to help this country come out of the situation it was in before the earthquake.'
Stapp said he's still haunted by images he saw on his first days in Haiti early last week.
"We were in a pediatric area and all of a sudden a soldier comes up. He's got in his hands an infant probably no more than three months old that was near death with a 105 fever. Could hardly breath,' he said.
"There was no bed for this baby. The soldier was doing everything he could to scream out loud to get attention. My sister heard him and took charge and found the baby a bed and helped save the baby's life. I gave her some Children's Tylenol that I had in my bag. It was surreal, like we were in a movie but it wasn't. It was real life.'