It is a thing....it happened in 2017....parts of Puerto Rico still don’t have power.
The island of Grand Bahama is underwater.
I lived thought Maria. I went outside the morning after Maria....I helped clear things from the roads. We drove by peoples homes and checked in on them. For those living stateside, there is no government running around cleaning things up. The day after the storm our island is still on curfew we got stopped by one police officer.
Communities strengthened as they came together to talk about what needed to be done. How can we help people, clear driveways, house people who lost roofs?
FEMA...happens way later.....way way later.
So Sol Relief became a thing...
In September and October of 2017 Hurricanes, Irma and Maria caused massive devastation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and many other areas of the Caribbean. A former St. Croix, U.S.V.I. resident and pilot, Jennifer Lockwood, wanted to help.
Jennifer partnered with St. Pete Air and the Glasscock Family Foundation to create an innovative disaster relief mission utilizing small aircraft to serve U.S.V.I and Puerto Rico with immediate aid. From that mission, a new venture focused on providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief with the use of aviation was formed – Sol Relief, Inc. In 2018, Bill Auer, owner of Tampa Bay Air Charter, was welcomed to the Board of Directors.
This group had 3 flights leave by noon today.
I am sitting here at work on the verge of crying all day. Actually seeing that damage breaks my heart and I am overwhelmed with the feelings I had the day after Maria. The other half is caused by seeing people step up and help those that aren’t making the news.
UPDATE: St. Pete businessman John Auer has offered to match donations from individuals dollar for dollar up to $500,000 for the next two weeks. If you’ve been waiting to donate, this is a great opportunity!
Click here to donate: https://solrelief.org/donate/
Or donate via PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/solrelief
100% of your donations go to our mission. Sol Relief, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit
This offer is not being extended to corporate sponsors at the time, but if you are interested in corporate sponsorship please contact us at [email protected]
A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE AUER FAMILY FOR THEIR SUPPORT!
If you can help great.... if you can’t please share....I stayed on St Croix after Maria because of all of the help I received and the knowledge that even if we were an island we were not alone.
I am going to tag this a bunch of stuff that I know is not appropriate but I just wanna get it in front of people ....sorry not sorry.