BETHEL — The Rotary Club of Bethel is coordinating a major fundraising effort for a portable, digital X-ray machine for Hope Village Orphanage and School in Les Cayes, Haiti.

Kathy Thrall of the Rotary Club of Bethel has enlisted the help of many local quilters and Rotarians to make luggage tags. The tags will be made of many different, colorful, cotton fabrics which can be fastened to luggage, backpacks, golf club bags or anything else. The tags will be sold for $5 each.

Thrall said her quilters need only make and sell 8,000 tags in order to buy the unit. Tags may be purchased at many local shops in Bethel or call Thrall at 824-3111 for more information.

The x-ray machine will cost approximately $40,000 and includes the machine, the viewer and necessary computer equipment. It is digital so there is no X-ray film or chemicals. The X-rays can be sent by computer to the United States or to other facilities to be read.

The unit is portable, can withstand the heat and humidity of Haiti and is the same type used in military fields. Hope Village Orphanage and School has close ties to Maine as its founder, Fr. Marc Boisvert, is a Lewiston native. Many of its board members are Mainers, including its medical director, Dr. Cynthia DeSol, nephrologist in Lewiston.

More information about Hope Village is available at www.freethekids.org. The Rotary Club of Bethel meets at 7:30 a.m. Tuesdays, at the Bethel Inn. Interested persons are invited to attend one of the weekly breakfast meetings to learn more about Rotary activities. For more information, contact the president, Joe Arizzi, at 824-0080.