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W.M. Hispanic Chamber Foundation Rallies Help For Disasters

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After being inundated with calls, asking “how can we help”, a local organization is stepping up to provide an avenue for West Michigan residents to help those impacted by disasters in Puerto Rico and Mexico. 

“And we can’t here in W. Michigan turn a blind eye to these disasters and I don’t think people want to turn a blind eye.”

That’s Luis Avila, President of the Board of Directors of the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation. He says they have received an incredible number of calls from those wanting to help.  He says the natural disasters, the first, in Mexico, where a deadly earthquake ravaged the country as well as the recent devastation from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, have affected West Michigan in a “deeply personal” way.

“There are people in West Michigan, all throughout this side of the state that have family and have friends there. So the chamber foundation, which is a 501-c3  non-profit, has received just over the last couple weeks, numerous inquiries about how we can help. People are looking for ways to help and we thought we should step up and provide a vehicle for west Michigan to be able to help the affected in both Mexico and Puerto Rico.”

Avila says the Foundation will act as a fiduciary, but will not keep any funds from this effort.  He says it provides a safe, reliable way for West Michiganders to help out.

“It is becoming very difficult to get provisions into either country to help those that are in need. So we decided the best way to do this, was to organize a fundraiser and we’ve identified a couple organizations, one in each country, that are already there,  have been doing good work for years already, that we know are reliable, we can send them the money. They’ll get it immediately and then they can just keep doing what they’re doing to help the victims of these disasters.”

All donations says Avila are 100 percent tax deductible and will help those in the most critical situations. He says they’ve already raised about three thousand dollars.  If you’d like to donate you can go to hccwm.org.

After being inundated with calls, asking “how can we help”, a local organization is stepping up to provide an avenue for West Michigan residents to help those impacted by disasters in Puerto Rico and Mexico. 

“And we can’t here in W. Michigan turn a blind eye to these disasters and I don’t think people want to turn a blind eye.”

That’s Luis Avila, Board Member of the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation. He says they have received an incredible number of calls from those wanting to help.  He says the natural disasters, the first, in Mexico, where a deadly earthquake ravaged the country as well as the recent devastation from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, have affected West Michigan in a “deeply personal” way.

“There are people in West Michigan, all throughout this side of the state that have family and have friends there. So the chamber foundation, which is a 501-c3  non-profit, has received just over the last couple weeks, numerous inquiries about how we can help. People are looking for ways to help and we thought we should step up and provide a vehicle for west Michigan to be able to help the affected in both Mexico and Puerto Rico.”

Avila says the Foundation will act as a fiduciary, but will not keep any funds from this effort.  He says it provides a safe, reliable way for West Michiganders to help out.

“It is becoming very difficult to get provisions into either country to help those that are in need. So we decided the best way to do this, was to organize a fundraiser and we’ve identified a couple organizations, one in each country, that are already there,  have been doing good work for years already, that we know are reliable, we can send them the money. They’ll get it immediately and then they can just keep doing what they’re doing to help the victims of these disasters.”

All donations says Avila are 100 percent tax deductible and will help those in the most critical situations. He says they’ve already raised about three thousand dollars.  If you’d like to donate you can go to hccwm.org.

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.