Relief to be shipped to Puerto Rico

Press Release 10/13/17

PERTH AMBOY – Mayor Wilda Diaz announced the efforts that the City of Perth Amboy and community partners have made in the past three weeks to provide relief to Puerto Rico, including a collection drive, fundraising efforts for shipping and Perth Amboy Police Officers awaiting deployment to Puerto Rico at a press conference today.

Trucks taking the first shipment completed the first leg of their journey for the Port of Jacksonville in Florida, where supplies will be loaded on ships sailing to San Juan, Puerto Rico as early as tomorrow. Then, the supplies will be delivered to San Sebastián, a city located almost 80 miles west of San Juan, where few supplies or support for recovery have been received and people are in desperate need. This is just one of the two shipments that has been dispatched; there is another shipment expected to go out next week as well.

The coordination, trucking and logistics from New Jersey to Florida were arranged and contributed by Bridge Development Partners, LLC in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The company’s incredible, gracious contribution completes an amazing two-week period of generosity.

Before the containers were loaded, tons upon tons of boxed supplies were stored in the Target Corporation’s new distribution facility and warehouse. This modern logistics center is located in the BridgePort Logistics Center on High Street in Perth Amboy.

Soon after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, thousands of people, businesses and nonprofit organizations immediately responded to the City of Perth Amboy’s communitywide call for assistance. People enthusiastically donated pallets of bottled water, tons of canned and non-perishable food, cartons of diapers, cases of personal hygiene products, lanterns and batteries, bedding, sheets, blankets, towels, first-aid kits and so much more. All the donated materials were sorted, packed into cartons and carefully labeled on the boxes.

Acting Police Chief Roman McKeon speaks at Target Warehouse.
*Photos by Katherine Massopust

At the truck-departure ceremonies, Mayor Diaz said, “We are a caring, charitable and deeply compassionate community. The outpouring of generosity has produced an enormous bounty of supplies that is almost too fantastic to describe. We are humbled and grateful by all that has been donated, and now we are creating the supply chain that will bring these much-needed goods to the people of San Sebastián.”

A key part of the mission was raising funds to ship the containers to Puerto Rico. Barry Rosengarten, Founder and President of the nonprofit Celebrate Perth Amboy, moved rapidly with the Mayor and the City Hall team to create the CPA San Sebastián Relief Fund, a 501(c)(3) entity.  Immediately after the relief fund was announced, numerous and incredibly generous individuals, corporations, small businesses, and nonprofits responded to the fundraising effort. The CPA-San Sebastián Relief Fund has successfully collected $45,000 to cover the cost of shipping the eight containers from Florida to the Port of San Juan.  Donations have been provided by Foundations from as far away as Washington, D.C. and locally-based charitable Foundations as well.

Individuals, companies, and nonprofits who are still looking to donate, should do so to the New Jersey for Puerto Rico, an organization spearheaded by the Puerto Rican Congress of New Jersey and state-wide leaders.

New Jersey for Puerto Rico has partnered with the Boys and Girls Club of Puerto Rico, the Salvation Army, and the American Red Cross to provide service and assistance recovery. Just this week a generous $10,000 check was given to the American Red Cross by the organization to aid in the relief effort. To learn more about this organization or to donate, please visit the website nj4pr.org or contact 1-833-NJ-HELPS. By partnering together and pooling our resources we can make a difference, helping our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico overcome this trying time.

City Administrators from Perth Amboy, Woodbridge and other Communities, Target Representatives, and First Responders from the Police, Fire Department and other City Offices get ready to deploy 200 palates of relief to Puerto Rico *Photo by Bob Rinklin