LEWISTON — Haiti’s College Confraternite is a school that will be front and center at a special presentation at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, at the Lewiston Public Library, 200 Lisbon St. third floor, Callahan Hall.

Mayor Laurent F. Gilbert Sr., local businessman Peter Geiger and Pastor Dieuseul Estivene of Haiti’s Berean Baptist Church will collectively present a slide show of Gilbert and Geiger’s recent trip to Haiti with a focus on College Confraternite, a school that is in dire need of rebuilding. Gilbert and Geiger went to Haiti in April as part of a group from South Lewiston Baptist Church.

Gilbert first learned of the school’s desperate condition through a meeting with Mayor Wilson Louis of Cite Soleil Section of Porta au Prince who visited Bates College in February, shortly after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. He and Geiger also met with him again in Haiti and visited the school.

Prior to the earthquake, the school provided educational instruction to 350 students from 3 to 15 years of age; however, only 150 are currently attending due to parents fearing an additional earthquake and the school’s now frail condition.

Gilbert and Geiger have been meeting with William Hiss, Bates Vice President of External Affairs Czerny Brasuell and Haitian-American students attending Bates in an effort to raise funds for the rebuilding of College Confraternite.

The public is invited to attend the free presentation.