Garcia eager to help his relatives in Puerto Rico
As Broncos guard Max Garcia prepares to face the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, his family and friends in Atlanta will be gathering to accept donations of canned goods and supplies for those devastated by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
Garcia has family members living in Puerto Rico — an uncle and his wife, and a greatgreat-aunt. For days after the hurricane, as Puerto Rico lost power and cellphone service, Garcia and his family in the continental U.S. were unable to contact their family in Puerto Rico to determine if they were OK.
“It wasn’t really about us trying to locate them. It was them being able to get a phone line and being able to call,” Garcia said. “It took a few days to hear back from my uncle, and my uncle is taking care of my grandfather who is in a nursing home. So we didn’t know what was going on there. The nursing home wasn’t able to call us back.
“Thankfully, after a few days he was able to contact us.”
In a social media message posted Saturday afternoon, Garcia announced that his grandfather died in his sleep.
The Category 4 storm ravaged Puerto Rico on Sept. 20 and left more than a dozen dead, with the toll continuing to rise. Only a limited number of hospitals have power or are relying on generators, exacerbating the crisis. Fuel is scare, power could be out for months in some areas, and residents have had a difficult time trying to fly off the island because of damage to the Federal Aviation Administration’s radar.
Garcia’s family and friends in Atlanta partnered with a local Puerto Rican restaurant to try to bring some relief to those in need.
“My mom has always been heavily involved in the community, so is my aunt, who owns a Puerto Rican dance company,” Garcia said. “We just felt like we should do something as a family, and this is what we saw as a great opportunity. We’re hoping to get a lot of support and help. A lot of people have been hitting me up already.”
The drive will be at 3781 Presidential Parkway in Atlanta from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Necessities including medicine, first-aid kits, water, cots and sleeping bags, diapers and baby formula, pet food, sheets and towels will be accepted. Trucks are on hand to deliver the goods to a Delta Cargo plane that is scheduled to fly to Puerto Rico on Monday.
The NFL also has joined the Hurricane Maria relief efforts. During its “Thursday Night Football” telecast on CBS and the NFL Network, the league included messages urging fans to donate to American Red Cross hurricane relief.
The Giants, Jets, Dolphins and the NFL Foundation are donating a total of $200,000 to the American Red Cross. And the NFL will match donations of up to $50,000 to the Miami and Puerto Rico hurricane relief campaign of Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso. The league earlier donated $1 million to Hurricane Irma relief efforts in Florida and the Caribbean.