The Millstone Times September 2018

Hurricane Maria Recovery By Lauren Kolacki

In September of 2017 one of the worst, on record, natural disasters hit Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria. A category five hurricane with winds of 175 mph in- flicted chaos on the island, causing a level of widespread destruction. Accord- ing to CNN, there was an estimated 4,645 fatalities and thousands more left in agony and distress. In the midst of the on-the-go, busy society we live in today, it takes a special type of person to put their lifestyle on hold and ask what they could do to help. Denise Rolon, a resident of Hazlet, NJ, grew up the oldest of five in a Puerto Rican family. Her mother left Puerto Rico when she was just sixteen years old, but in 2017, her and her husband moved back. Three months after settling in, Hurricane Maria hit. For weeks Denise was unable to get in touch with her mother, resulting in pure panic. When Denise finally was able to reach her Mom, she spoke of all the destruction. Fortunately, her Mother and Step Father moved into Denise’s grandparents’ house, which was built with cement and located on the side of a mountain. They experienced minimal damage but that was most definitely not the case for the rest of the island. Some houses are still without power, many houses in the area were complete- ly demolished, but everyone was experiencing apprehension. Denise immedi- ately speculated how she could help. By talking to her mother, she got a sense of what they needed and began to put together a plan. Denise created an amazon registry ('For Yauco with (Amor)’) with the hopes to compile a bag of items she could deliver. After posting the registry on her Facebook page, the response she was got was inspiring. The members of her community, her coworkers, family members all jumped at the opportunity to contribute. Her first successful trip was in November, where she brought a few suitcases filled with necessities including foods, solar lights, vitamins, first aid kits, etc. She even spoke with United Airlines about bringing along a gen- erator but once she got to the airport, it was just too heavy. A few months after the storm, Denise was able to start sending care packages all over the island. Because of the power outage, she collected as many bat- teries, candles and cans of bug spray as she could. This July, Denise made her second trip to Puerto Rico, this time bearing school supplies. Since the last time Denise was there, she noticed a lot of growth the Island was starting to make. Although there was still a lot of devastation, Denise was pleased to see progress and that mango’s, corn and avocados were all started growing again. Creating such a following over the last couple months, Denise was able to orchestrate a school supply drive in which between 20-25 families donated. With the help of her 6-year-old son and many close friends, they created care packages of 45 backpacks filled with kits, folders and notebooks. They put together 100 pencil cases filled with pencils, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, erasers, sharpeners, etc. Denise’s mother drove her son and her to deliver the school supplies in the most rural areas in and around Yauco, PR. Denise claims its human nature to want to help and she is lucky to be sur- rounded by people who share the same ambition. She has taught her children to pull in their resources and do what they can to help someone reduce their burden. In the future, Denise hopes to continue helping out and plans to cre- ate some type of Holiday drive. If interested in donating, feel free to contact Denise at drolon1999@gmail.com.

contact Denise at drolon1999@gmail.com

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The Millstone Times The Millstone Times

September 2018 September 2018

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