Rescue teams are continuing to search for the four students and two faculty from Lynn University who have been missing in Haiti since the devastating earthquake hit last week.
Teams continue to comb through the rubble of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, where the group is believed to have last been seen. Lynn staff and family members are also scouring areas in the Dominican Republic where some of the group may have been taken.
The six missing are part of a 14-member group, "Journey of Hope" mission that had arrived in Haiti the day before the quake hit. Eight students from the small college in Boca Raton returned to South Florida last week from Haiti.
The missing students are Christine Gianacaci of Hopewell, N.J., Stephanie Crispinelli of Katonah, N.Y., Britney Gengel of Rutland, Mass. and Courtney Hayes of Boca Raton. The missing professors are Dr. Patrick Hartwick and Dr. Richard Bruno.
Students on Lynn's campus have been holding candlelight vigils every night, praying for the safe return of their classmates.
Parents of the missing students have been awaiting word on their loved ones in Miami, and appeared on the "Today Show" this morning to express their hopes that the students will be found.
"I'm not giving up on the fact that she's alive, none of us are," said Jean Gianacaci, mother of Christine. "There's nothing we can do but this, and hope."
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Many of the families expressed their gratefulness for the search efforts but said they needd more help searching for their children.
"We need troops at that hotel...this is a nightmare, this is a living nightmare," said an emotional Len Gengel, Britney's father. "The United States of America needs to get to the Hotel Montana and get our children now."
