Her experiences awakened her to a world far removed from her own. At the Son Fils Home for the destitute and dying, Trost was moved by her immediate connections with the women, many, mothers like herself. “I felt so clearly that bond that attaches us all together,” Trost said. One woman, near-death, was wrapped in a butterfly sheet, and Trost interpreted this as a sign of hope.

“The problems were so huge but maybe she was telling me not to give up,” she said.

Trost was motivated by Father Gerry Jean-Juste, priest of St. Clare’s Church, whose vision was to begin a food program for the hungry children of the neighborhood.  Before she left Haiti, Trost felt she had heard her calling.Back in the United States, Trost was able to secure grant seed money.  Less than a year later, Trost returned to Haiti and, in 2001, established the What If? Foundation, to raise money for Father Gerry’s food program.

During yearly visits, Trost’s experiences with Father Gerry, the Depestre family and St. Clare’s children grew, and she posted pictures and requests for donations at the office of her second husband, Tom Hendrickson, of Kensington’s Hendrickson Clinic. He urged her to write a book.

“I felt I had to tell the story, to be the voice of the woman in the butterfly sheet and to let people know what’s happening to the children there,” Trost said.

“I felt I was privileged to be a part of their lives and having seen it, could not be silent.”

The response to Trost’s book, which was released last September, has been encouraging, especially Father Gerry’s message of ‘Piti Piti Na Rive’ or ‘little by little we will arrive’. Father Gerry died in May but his work continues on through the Haitians he had trained.

The book was on a summer reading list for incoming freshmen at St. Mary’s College High School in Berkeley. Trost balances her time between running the foundation and her home-based business in Berkeley.

In its 10th year, What If? has raised over $1 million, expanding the community-run food program to five days a week, serving more than 1,000 children daily; sponsoring a seven-week summer camp for an additional 450 children; and providing scholarships for 200 children to attend private school.

“In Haiti, the government has a budget to pay for only 10 percent of the children, 90 percent can’t go to public schools; there just aren’t enough schools,” Trost said.

Along with St. Clare, Trost dreams of building a neighborhood school, medical clinic and sustainable garden. It only takes $. 70 cents to provide a meal for one child.

“As each of us identifies what is possible for us and then we do what is possible,” she said. “Then that’s how the impossible happens.”