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When a team of California medical professionals -- including two local doctors -- planned on deploying to Haiti, they knew their life-saving efforts would depend on how much money they would be able to raise to buy medical supplies.

They set a fundraising goal of $15,000. Monday, they arrived in Haiti having raised more than three times that amount -- more than $50,000, with every cent of it going to get the team and medical supplies on the ground in Port-au-Prince.

”I know we're a really generous community, but this is above and beyond,” said Taffy Stockton, who headed up the fundraising effort and whose father and sister, Asa and Candy Stockton, are members of the team. “It's just amazing. In lots of ways, it really renews your faith in humanity -- that people really do want to make a difference.”

Taffy Stockton said the team of 11 -- with Asa Stockton and fellow orthopedic surgeon Nathan Shishido, both of Eureka -- landed safely in Port-au-Prince on Monday, and members were quickly put to work at the city's Adventist Hospital, a 70-bed facility that has been treating hundreds of patients a day as one of the city's only medical facilities left standing after the magnitude 7 quake.

More than 150,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves since the Jan. 12 quake, which left more than a half million people homeless and injured. Without prompt medical attention, many fear quake-related fatalities will continue to soar in the

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country, which before the quake was the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, with more than half the population subsisting on less than $1 a day.

Medical supplies are in dire need in Haiti, with reports of amputations being performed with saws, surgeries being conducted without anesthetics and people dying from simple infections.

Consequently, Asa Stockton told the Times-Standard last week that the team would only be as effective as the supplies purchased through local donations would allow.

Taffy Stockton said the outpouring from the local community has been simply incredible.

”Humboldt County has been amazingly generous,” she said, adding that the team purchased antibiotics, dental supplies, medications, crutches, respirators, sutures and more with the donations. “They actually had so many supplies we were afraid they wouldn't be able to get it all over there with them. We had to beg and plead for some extra baggage to make it on, but it did.”

The doctors got a big helping hand from North Coast Horticulture Supply, which agreed to take donations at its four local stores, and match the first $5,000 that came in. After just three days, they donated a total of more than $12,000 to the team. Kalei Colridge, the company's head of marketing and public relations, said it was heartwarming to watch the donations come rolling in.

”I think we would all love to try and go to help,” she said. “You wish you could go help and do something, but most of us don't have the medical skill or can't really go to Haiti and help. But, knowing that there were people from our community going, it was a real tangible thing to get behind and support.”

Colridge said it wasn't just North Coast Horticulture Supply customers that came in to donate, as many businesses heard about the business' pledge to match donations. She said Cypress Grove donated $1,000, while Kokatat, North Coast Medical and Myrtle Avenue Veterinary Clinic each donated $500.

Then, Colridge said, a group of freshmen at Fortuna High School heard about the matching funds, and dropped off a check for more than $1,700.

Lea Cahill, whose daughter Katrina Cahill joined McKenzie Rice and Taylor Barnhart in leading the Fortuna High School fundraising drive, said the girls had done some similar fundraising projects in eighth grade, and opted to do a bake sale.

”They just baked all night and then spent four hours in front of Safeway,” Lea Cahill said. “People were just giving us money, not even wanting the cookies. People were very generous.”

In collecting donations for the team, Taffy Stockton said she's also heard plenty of heartwarming stories.

There was the sixth-grade class at Toddy Thomas Elementary School in Rohnerville, which had won a pizza party after taking first place in a canned food drive.

”They said instead of having a pizza party, they'd rather send the money to the doctors going to Haiti,” Taffy Stockton said.

Then, there was the woman who brought a check to Arcata Exchange, apologizing profusely that she couldn't give more.

”She explained that she'd been out of work for 18 months, but she wanted to help out,” Taffy Stockton said. “There have just been tons of stories like that.”

Taffy Stockton said she will be posting updates and pictures, documenting the team's efforts, on the Web site www.humboldthelpshaiti.com.

Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or tgreenson@times-standard.com.