Haitian-born sisters Tamare Piersaint and Nerlenge Tima sat on the floor in Eat'n Park's headquarters at Homestead's Waterfront yesterday, their hearts heavy yet filling with hope for their earthquake-ravaged land.

The Penn Hills women, who immigrated to New York more than two decades ago, lost a cousin in last week's earthquake and remain unsure about the fate of other relatives there. But mitigating their pain has been the response, both global and local, to the desolation.

Surrounded by gallon plastic bags they had filled with toothbrushes, toothpaste and antiseptics, the sisters smiled at 60 other volunteers who, like them, gave up six hours yesterday to pack medicines and other supplies as part of the Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti's response to the disaster. The effort was one of numerous events planned around the region this weekend to organize and distribute aid to victims of the earthquake.

"We were searching for family members and then you get to a point of what else can you do? You can't go there," said Ms. Piersaint, 28, a rehabilitation counselor at the Bethlehem Haven shelter, Uptown.

"Bagging this stuff may seem like the smallest thing but this will plant a seed of happiness for someone."

"Instead of sitting around feeling bad we not only make the [financial] donations we can and we do this," added Ms. Tima, 27, a service coordinator at UPMC's Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic.

Before the earthquake struck last week, two doctors and 24 other FLM of Haiti volunteers had been scheduled to depart for Haiti Saturday, each carrying two 50-pound bags of medical and educational supplies.

The group makes semi-annual medical and educational missions to its 600-student school and its medical clinic located, respectively, in Laboule and Thomassin, remote villages in the mountains above Petionville, a suburb about 20 miles southwest of the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Reports thus far indicate the clinic, which opened in July, and the school suffered no damage from the earthquake. But Petionville was hard hit.

"The hotel where we were going to stay is gone," said FLM of Haiti board member Mary Gregg, 48, of Carnegie, who also is manager of leadership development for Eat'n Park. The restaurant chain donated space for yesterday's relief effort to repackage the supplies -- pain relievers, antibiotics, vitamins, blood pressure medication, and water filtration systems, among other items -- for easier distribution.

In one of the two rooms crammed with volunteers and supplies, a message board simply stated: "Good Morning, Save Haiti. Please."

"We were not going to a critical situation originally but we are now," Ms. Gregg said. "We will go as soon as we are able. It might be two or three weeks."

The doctors are now trying to quickly join other relief organizations and the other volunteers still plan to travel there as soon as possible, said Ms. Gregg, who will be making her fourth humanitarian trip to Haiti. She last traveled there in 2002.

"People ask, 'Why do you go back?' " she said, her eyes filling with tears. "The need is so critical and the people are so beautiful. They have a spirit about them that is so positive, especially in light of their circumstances. All they want is hope, like every human being."

She reached down and hugged her granddaughter, Bridget, 9, of Washington, Pa., who spent the night with her grandmother so she could join yesterday's volunteer effort.

Everywhere there were children with parents and grandparents, a sight that warmed the heart, Ms. Gregg said.

"They're learning about volunteering, that it's important to do," she said.

Among those donating their day off were Eat'n Park Chief Financial Officer Dan Wilson and his daughter Grace, as well as students from English as a Second Language classes at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School and a Bible study group at East Liberty Presbyterian Church.

And with them were Ms. Piersaint and Ms. Tima, who are both married and moved to Western Pennsylvania in the spring. Their parents, both medical assistants, make annual missionary trips to their homeland and taught their children to be humanitarians, the sisters said.

"We're keeping up hope. We're doing as much as possible here to aid. Part of being here is keeping alive hope for all of them in our homeland," Ms. Piersaint said.

"This may look like a little thing but it is really big to us," Ms. Tima added.

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