Hurricane Melissa, the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane, devastated the lives of Jamaican citizens on Oct. 28 after making landfall. To help, organizations on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus put together a drive to donate essentials to those affected.
FAU’s Jamaican Student Association and the university’s police department have started their own drives to collect nonperishables and other essentials to send back to Hurricane Melissa victims. With both drives running into late November, the organizations have partnered with local nonprofits to distribute the donations in Jamaica to those in need.
Jamaican Student Association
FAU’s Jamaican Student Association kicked off their “Hurricane Melissa Relief Drive” on Oct. 31, located in FAU’s Student Union lobby and Room 220. JAMSA and the Caribbean Student Association originally thought of an idea to start the drive two days after Hurricane Melissa made land, but a conflict of time stopped them from going forward, according to the organization’s marketing director, Kyle Campbell.
“Coming straight from Jamaica, it’s disorienting to see something happen while you’re not there. My immediate family is there, my best friend is there, and my other friends are there. A lot of my high school friends are still there,” said Campbell, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica. “So to get the chance to do this drive and do something to help people back home, it feels good.”
From Oct. 31 to Nov. 14, with plans to extend the drive for one more week afterward, the JAMSA will be collecting donations for the Global Empowerment Mission. According to the nonprofit organization’s LinkedIn, GEM was founded by Michael Capponi as a way to “bring the most amount of aid, to the most amount of people, in the least amount of time for the least amount of cost to our donors.”
After JAMSA collects donations, GEM will organize flights to and from Jamaica and other impacted islands. Once the items arrive, GEM staff will distribute the donations directly to citizens in need.
A Jamaican senior student majoring in elementary education, Jashanti Gordon, heard about JAMSA’s drive due to her closeness to Campbell and then saw the organization’s official poster about the drive on Instagram. Gordon explains that she appreciated how quickly JAMSA acted; there was no second-guessing.
“It makes me feel very seen, especially by my own people,” said Gordon. “They collaborated with CSA, and it wasn’t even a question. It was, ‘Okay, let’s do it,’ and boom, they started making moves. I may not personally have family who were affected, but I know this is going to help somebody, and that’s the main point.”
The hurricane felt especially personal to Gordon because her family, including her grandfather, resides in Montego Bay. Leading up to when Hurricane Melissa hit, Gordon made it a point to call back home to check on her family members.
“I was literally calling every other day, like, ‘Is he okay? Is the house okay?’” she said. When asked if her grandpa was alright after the hurricane, she nodded. Although he wasn’t too badly affected by the hurricane, her grandpa’s house still sustained a bit of damage.
While Gordon was aware of JAMSA’s drive, she didn’t know that the police department was also making an effort to help.
FAU Police Department
On the Boca Raton campus, the FAU Police Department is also hosting its own drive, focused on collecting baby formula, diapers, and new sheets, among other essentials for the families affected by the storm.
The drive was a collaborative idea between Sergeant Gael Gassant, who oversees community support services, and his Captain, Chelsea Friedlander. Whenever there’s a natural disaster, the FAUPD takes it upon themselves to collaborate and raise aid for those impacted, said Gassant.
There’s also a large number of Jamaican employees at the department, Sgt. Gassant said. “We have a lot of Jamaican employees and colleagues … Some of them do have family back home. None of them lost family members, but some of their homes were destroyed … so we just kind of collaborated and decided to do it.”
To get the essentials back to Jamaica, the police department is working through Coconut Creek’s Food for the Poor, a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to bring urgent relief to vulnerable families affected by poverty.
To get as many donations as they can, the FAUPD reached out to multiple FAU departments, including the Jupiter campus, Boca Raton’s dean’s office, and FAU Housing, according to Gassant. Sgt. Gassant and another officer, Officer Marissa Buchanan, also collected more nonperishables and baby items to add to the drive.
Sgt. Gassant mentioned that for the department’s Jamaican employees, the drive has meant a lot. “They’re very excited, very grateful, and happy that we’re actually doing something about it,” he said. “Even if it happened somewhere else, Haiti or Costa Rica, it’s just a human thing to help others.”
The FAUPD will continue to collect donations through Nov. 26, with the drive taking place in the police department’s lobby. The department doesn’t have a set goal; instead, it’s trying to collect as much as possible.
“We want to try to get as much supplies and items as possible. We do know that around this time, it’s the holidays, people have families, they have stuff to buy,” said Gassant. “Whatever you’re able to give, we’ll take. If it’s in your heart’s desire to give … we appreciate it.”
The FAUPD’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed by Gordon, especially because the department was considerate of how the hurricane affected their Jamaican employees and their families.
“It really is great, especially because of the times that we are in as the FAU community … seeing they did that because they have coworkers who have people affected … that feels really good,” said Gordon.
Kaii Thompson is the Culture Reporter for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].
