Retailer’s Granddaughter Raises $100K+ for Puerto Rico

Pittsburgh--Well-known jeweler Marie Helene Morrow has been speaking out a lot about what’s needed in her homeland of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, and it seems that her concern for others and her desire to help runs in the family.

Weeks after Hurricane Maria ravished the country, leaving it in terrible condition under which many are still suffering, Rosana Guernica, a junior at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has raised more than $100,000 to help aid her homeland.  

Guernica is Morrow’s granddaughter, and made national news for her efforts.

Through crowdfunding, she raised the funds to buy thousands of pounds of supplies and reserve planes to deliver them after being in touch with doctors and first responders on the ground there to get a better sense of what was needed.

According to the YouCaring page, they were asking for supplies like baby formula, water, batteries and medicine.

Guernica could not be reached for comment by press time but the crowdfunding page she started states: “It has been an incredibly difficult and emotionally weighted time for all of us. We are desperate to help the island and don’t seem to know how.”

Within just 24 hours of launching the page, she had raised $7,000, according to the Associated Press. By the next day, it had grown to $11,000.

As of Friday morning, the page indicated she had raised just over $105,000. It also has been shared more than 2,000 times on social media.

Guernica states on the page: “No one person can solve these issues. No one government can help the island. There is money being raised that won’t keep people from dying, that won’t get people the help that they need in time. The supplies being collected are being held in inventory throughout the U.S. and in the ports of San Juan. By the time normal distribution channels open, it will be too late for the people who needed it the most.”

On Oct. 4, she used $20,000 of the funds to buy and transport more than 1,000 pounds of supplies to the country, and returned with six evacuees.

Then last week, she took a second trip, along with 2,000 pounds of supplies and six volunteers from Carnegie Mellon, according to the university’s Twitter account.

A Carnegie Mellon story posted online said she’s raising an additional $35,000 to try to charter a 70-passenger plane that could