THANKFUL FOR DONATIONS
Displaced Puerto Ricans get holiday aid
Tears spilled from Rain Alejandro’s eyes as she remembered the family she left in Puerto Rico to come to Boston so her three children could go to school, after hurricanes damaged her home and ravaged the island.
Despite all she has lost, and the difficulty of adjusting to a new life so far away, the mother of three said she’s grateful to be alive this Thanksgiving.
“I thank God because we’re alive,” she told me yesterday through a translator. “We are healthy.”
Alejandro, 28, was at Boston Public Schools headquarters yesterday, picking up a turkey and all the fixings that students at Belmont Hill School donated to families displaced from Puerto Rico. The kind-hearted students have also donated clothes and backpacks.
The generosity didn’t stop there. City Hall employees donated $2,400 in gift cards. BPS staffers donated warm clothes. Cradles to Crayons has donated backpacks full of school supplies and winter clothes.
Currently, 126 youngsters who fled Puerto Rico after the hurricanes are enrolled in Boston’s public schools.
“There’s more and more coming,” said Sonia GomezBanrey, director of Countdown to Kindergarten, which is organizing donations and services for the families.
Many families are staying with relatives or friends.
“For a lot of the families that are doubling up, the idea that they’re able to help that family that they’re living with, to also support and not have to spend the money, it’s a big deal for these families,” Gomez-Banrey said. “They’ve been very grateful.”
Alejandro said the schools in San Juan are still closed and her two youngest children, ages 3 and 6, are autistic and need therapy. She came to Boston last week, leaving behind her mother and grandmother. She’s living with cousins in South Boston but may have to move into a shelter because she’s not on the lease.
“It’s difficult,” Alejandro said through tears.
Ivonne Leon, 26, came here so her three kids could go to school. She’s staying with relatives in a two-bedroom South End apartment. Back home, Thanksgiving is a big party with dancing and music.
“It’s a new experience,” she said of spending the holiday in the Hub.
Maria Reyes, 54, and her grandson, Edward Munoz, 7, have been staying at friends’ homes, sleeping on a couch or the floor. She lost everything in San Juan, she said, and wasn’t able to get her medications. She came to Boston with her grandson so he could go to school.
“If it wasn’t for this, I wasn’t going to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving. We are here with nothing. We have no money. Nothing,” said Reyes, who worked as a housekeeper in Puerto Rico. Edward carried the turkey with a big smile, saying, “I love Thanksgiving.”
‘If it wasn’t for this, I wasn’t going to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving.’ — MARIA REYES Displaced from San Juan