Donations pour in for Marquette students’ Puerto Rico relief effort
On Saturday afternoon, a small area outside Marquette University’s Alumni Memorial Hall was piled high with bottled water, canned goods, diapers and storage boxes crammed with additional supplies like flashlights and batteries, all bound for Puerto Rico.
Most of the school’s 51 students from the hurricane-battered island joined together on a beautiful fall day for a relief drive.
They were far from home, but home was not far from their thoughts.
The students all have family members on the island that has been left with limited fuel, water and cellphone service, and no power except for generators.
“What we’re deeply saddened about is most people are not as fortunate as we are,” said Paola Canting, 21, a senior, who helped organize the drive. “The island is completely destroyed. That’s why we decided to do this.”
She said they’re waiting on a cache of medical supplies Monday before sending the material Tuesday to Chicago, where it will be flown to Puerto Rico.
“Marquette has been great to us with how they have helped us,” Canting said. “The Milwaukee community as a whole has been wonderful. We see people not affiliated with Marquette, they have come here and donated.”
Canting, whose family lives in San Juan, said she didn’t hear from her loved ones for the first 48 hours after Hurricane Maria made landfall on Sept. 20.
“It was crazy. My dad was finally able get hold of me,” she said. “He asked me if I had heard from my mother and I told him ‘no.’ My parents are divorced. He went to her house with a cellphone and I was able to talk to my mom.
“It was an excruciating experience not knowing if your family was OK, especially after seeing all those pictures and hearing all those horrible stories” about the hurricane’s aftermath, she said.
Cristofer Borghese, 20, a junior from San Juan, also helped organize the drive. Besides goods, the students said they collected more than $7,000 in donations. The funds will go to United For Puerto Rico.
Asked what he thinks is going on in Puerto Rico, Borghese said: “Chaos.”
“My mom said there are eight hours of lines to get gasoline. Hospitals are running out of diesel. She says it’s terrible, nobody wants to be outside on the streets.”
Feeling helpless while their families endure hardship, the students have come together to help others.
“Even though we’re so far from home,” Borghese said, “we are hoping to make a difference.”