Faculty and Staff Mount Puerto Rico Hurricane Maria Relief Effort

Posted October 9, 2017

Oct. 24 Update: The Tech community shipped an additional 3 - 4 pallets of supplies that will be picked up this week. This is enough supplies to fill a 26 ft. U-Haul. The total pallets shipped is 17 pallets for a total of 9640 pounds of goods (156 cases of water and 144 boxes of supplies).

Oct. 16 Update: Supplies were loaded for transport to Puerto Rico on Saturday, Oct. 14. The Tech community accumulated 13 pallets of food and water that will be delivered to San Juan. Several more pallets of supplies will ship this week.

The catastrophic damage resulting from Hurricane Maria has left most residents of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in dire need. In response, members of the Georgia Institute of Technology community organized a campaign to provide much needed aid to Puerto Rico. Ivan Allen College’s Juan Carlos Rodriguez in Modern Languages and Marilu Suarez in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs are deeply involved in organizing disaster relief on campus. 

“We had a generous outpouring of items and money donated by the entire campus,” said Marilu Suarez, an administrative professional in the Nunn School who was raised in Puerto Rico. “We are shipping to Caritas de Puerto Rico 126 boxes plus 139 cases of water. Our gratitude goes to all on campus who contributed to the success of this effort.”

The aide committee is working with the Provost's Office to arrange transport for the goods to Puerto Rico.

Suarez and Rodriguez worked with a committee from across campus that included Legna Figueroa (Chemistry Graduate Student), Juan Carlos Rodriguez (Associate Professor Modern Language), Luis Ocasio (Registrar Office), Johanca LoTempio (Senior Research Engineer at GTRI), Marilu Suarez (The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs).

Others involved included the Puerto Rican Student Association (PRiSA), Laura Paige (Academic Advisor at IBB), Carlos Velazquez( CEE), Joel Martine-Goyco (BME), Kyle Gilrey (BME), Andrew Renart (EE), Carlos Davila (GTRI), Suzi Lee (Language Institute), Alfonso Cruz(ECE), Kendall Nelson( Language Institute), Luis Rosa (Robotics), Ricardo Cruz(BME), Alexa Haeke (GTRI), Eric Mulero (Physics), Angel Santiago (BioE), Ricardo Bonilla (ME), Victoria Caban (Bioinformatics), Sergio Garcia (GTRI), Ramiro Santana (CE), Melissa Aberle Grasse (GTPE), Amado Espinosa, Josue Quiñones, Melanie Santos

Several locations on campus served as collection points for essential goods, non-perishable food, and over-the-counter medicine. These included the Molecular Science and Engineering Building, the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, the Registrar's Office, the Manufacturing Related Disciplines Complex, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Monetary contributions to aid in the relief efforts can still be made. Visit the Puerto Rico We’re PResent GoFundMe site.