LAND O’LAKES, Fla. — Like a merciless case of deja vu, Jeannie Calderin mentioned she’s as soon as once more watching her residence nation of Puerto Rico torn aside by mom nature.
“Unfortunately, it devastated the island. Most of my family is telling me that it was worse than Hurricane Maria, but there was a difference between the two. Hurricane Maria was a lot of wind, this one came with a lot of water,” she mentioned.
And similar to within the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Calderin’s nonprofit—Somos Puerto Rico Tampa—is mobilizing to convey assist. Though she mentioned this time round, they’re additionally taking some hard-earned classes with them.
“We made a lot of mistakes and started getting stuff here and getting donations here, but it was a logistics nightmare getting it to Puerto Rico and making sure it got to the right hands,” she mentioned.
To keep away from that nightmare and to keep away from duplicating different ongoing efforts to assist, Calderin mentioned they are going to concentrate on assembly the wants of the individuals in actual time. So this time round, she’s specializing in elevating cash so she will be able to purchase what individuals want as these wants change.
And proper now a serious want is electrical energy.
“We want to bring light from Florida. So I want to buy lanterns that they can put outside and they can recharge [them] with the phone, solar lanterns,” she mentioned.
Calderin mentioned she and her crew will even be personally delivering the objects to the island within the subsequent few weeks.
And because the individuals of Puerto Rico bounce again she mentioned she hopes all of us stroll away with one main lesson:
“Preparation. Preparation. Preparation. Preparation.”
To study extra about Somos Puerto Rico Tampa and the way to donate, head to their Facebook page.