Rosana Guernica, a 22-year-old Carnegie Mellon University student, crowdfunded almost $10,000 for Puerto Rico before chartering a plane and delivering the aid herself.
Guernica, 22, was troubled by the details coming out of her native Puerto Rico following the devastation in Puerto Rico, so she decided to take action.
Guernia, who is a sciences major at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, heard stories about people getting off the island by chartering a private plane and decided to do so herself.
https://twitter.com/CarnegieMellon/status/919278833869754373
Launching a YouCaring page one week after Maria hit, Guernica raised $7,000 in 24 hours. By the next day, she had raised $11,000.
via NBC:
On Oct. 4, she used $20,000 of the donations to buy and transport more than 1,000 pounds of supplies to Puerto Rico. She also returned with six evacuees.
Guernica boarded a plane to Puerto Rico with a handful of volunteers from Carnegie Mellon and 2,000 pounds of supplies on Saturday. It was her second trip to the island since her crowdfunding efforts began, according to a tweet sent out through Carnegie Mellon’s official Twitter account.
“The supplies being collected are being held in inventory throughout the US and in the ports of San Juan,” Guernica wrote in the YouCaring description. “By the time normal distribution channels open, it will be too late for the people who needed it most.”
Three weeks after Maria, 90 percent of the island’s residents still lack power. The storm hit the island with strong gusts of winds traveling at 155 mph. Residents have been struggling with food and water shortages, in addition to downed infrastructure.
At the time of this writing, 822 donors have contributed to the cause, with donations exceeding $85,000.
