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GREENSBORO -- It was supposed to be a resume booster, that summer mission trip. Something to dress up the college applications for the fall.

But that was before Seth Crawford spent 12 days in Haiti. Twelve days watching dozens of hungry babies screaming to be held at an orphanage. Twelve days working next to a people whose life expectancy is 51 years. That was before marveling at how most Haitians exist on $2 a day. Before learning that more than 90 percent of the nation is illiterate.

By the time Crawford left Haiti, the Northwest Guilford High School senior was determined to make a change -- no matter how small -- in Haiti's cesspool of poverty.

That change comes Saturday, when Crawford and three other cross country runners use Guilford and Caswell counties as their personal track. Starting in the morning, they'll run across both counties -- 63.3 miles in all -- to raise money and awareness for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

"It's a small way to let a large group of people know they haven't been forgotten," said Crawford.

Except that Crawford really did forget them.

On his last night in Haiti, mission leaders urged Crawford and other church members from Christ Community to remember the people and hardships they were leaving behind.

But somewhere between Friday night football games, applying to colleges and running cross country, that's exactly what Crawford did.

It wasn't until it came time for Crawford to come up with a service project for his senior year at Northwest Guilford that he remembered his leaders' challenge.

Late last year, Crawford put together a page on Facebook, the social networking site. He called it Chump Change 4 Real Change and asked folks to donate whatever they could to the people of Haiti.

It didn't take long for Crawford's project to take off. Students at eight schools in the area signed up to round up money. Each day, Crawford and others would collect from their fellow students. Sometimes the daily total was small, maybe $15. One day, Crawford's classmates raised $209.

So far the runners -- Crawford, fellow Northwest students Sean Langkamp and Ryan Rhodes, and East Forsyth's Patrick Crawford (no relation) -- and their friends have raised more than $2,000 from students across the Triad.

"I know it's not a lot, but it's a start," said Crawford. "Maybe others will want to help out and then more will want to help after that and pretty soon it grows."

Besides, said Crawford, the money is only half of what Crawford wants to send to Haiti. He also wants to send a message.

"I want them to know I haven't forgotten them," he said.

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@ news-record.com