Atlanta Bahamians Collect Items for Hurricane Joaquin Victims

Fri, Oct 23rd 2015, 01:59 PM

Conch fritters, sky juice and chicken in the bag were top sellers over the weekend, as scores of Bahamians and friends of The Bahamas gathered to dine and donate for the Hurricane Joaquin victims.

Young and old, donors came from several counties to assist in in any way they could. Among the items collected were baby supplies, clothing, shoes, underwear, toys and games. An independent Go Fund Me account set up under the name Atlanta Bahamians Care, raised enough to get the items from Atlanta to Florida for shipping to the devastated islands. Two middle schools and a college also assisted in the efforts.

Monique Vanderpool, The Bahamas’ Deputy Consul General for Atlanta expressed her thanks to the donors and private citizens saying: “On behalf of the Government of The Bahamas, I wish to take the opportunity to thank those who have supported The Bahamas during this recent hurricane. The outpouring of love and support, through monetary donations, clothing, water, supplies and the like, has been outstanding. We are grateful, we are appreciative and we are thankful and we just wanted to extend our sincerest thanks.”

Organizers originally planned to use their personal vehicles to transport the items, but the event was so successful, they had to resort to a moving van.

Community Outreach Coordinator and hostess, Lisa Hawk-Hall:

“The event was an overwhelming success,” said Arthia Nixon, explained Arthia Nixon, coordinator and public relations director for the team.“We originally planned on driving down in a van or a truck but now we have to upgrade to a moving vehicle. So far we’ve had collections at two homes, a Bahamian deejay collecting at the nightclub where he works, another Bahamian at a university downtown collecting with his Caribbean student association, two middles schools and so many people who have called, emailed and reached out on social media to help. Co-coordinators Melissa Bevans and Lisa Hall-Hawk were kind enough to offer their homes as location sites in Fulton and Henry County and the Bahamas Consulate Office allowed those in that part of the city to drop items at the office. So this was a tremendous team effort.”

Lisa Hall-Hawk, community outreach coordinator opened her home for the effort, and had been collecting items for several days from friends of The Bahamas. The dine and donate event was to last until 6 p.m. but the packing party extended to almost midnight.

“I have to say thank you because they came out and did all of this today,” said an overwhelmed Hall-Hawk. “Look - I am surrounded with boxes of goodies to go down to The Bahamas. My heart is full and I am so pleased and excited that we had people who came from so far – all over Georgia and the Carolinas. I just want everyone to know that I really, really appreciate everything that they did and I thank you all for your hard work.”



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