A converted warehouse in downtown Lexington KY was the setting for a $100-a-plate benefit dinner on May 19 to help the people of Bayonnais, Haiti. Proceeds from the festive event will fund a water project to provide safe, clean drinking water for the Bayonnais area.

The event was the brainchild of Tim Carson, a retired school teacher and professional caterer, whose first trip to Haiti last year profoundly changed him and gave him a new focus for the rest of his life. “I'm not kidding,” he says. “It shifted my way of thinking.”