Mass. family builds Haiti orphanage in memory of daughter who died in 2010 quake

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – An American family who lost a daughter in Haiti's massive earthquake three years ago has finished building an orphanage in her memory.

The hilltop orphanage in the coastal town of Grand Goave cost about $1.8 million to build and features seismically resistant walls and a medical clinic. It's built in the shape of the letter "B'' to commemorate 19-year-old Britney Gengel.

Gengel was a 19-year-old sophomore at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, who had gone to Haiti to hand out meals for a charity. She died when the hotel where she was staying in collapsed in the quake. Officials say more than 300,000 people perished in the disaster.

Hailing from Rutland, Massachusetts, Gengel's parents, Leonard and Cherylann, led a ceremony Saturday to mark the orphanage's completion.