By Michael Bernaschina, Staff Writer
This past summer, myself, 11 other students, and our two program directors traveled to Puerto Rico for our two week GO Short program. While we were there, we worked with a couple service groups, one being El Proyecto ENLACE Del Caño Martin Peña, whose mission it is to restore the body of water known as El Caño Martin Peña, as well as assist the surrounding area, in overcoming poverty, which became impoverished due to its pollution.
Unfortunately, ENLACE was heavily affected by the recent Hurricane Maria. In effort to assist them in rebuilding, our group has begun trying to raise money through GoFundMe.
To advertise our efforts, we’ve designed and printed flyers to be distributed around campus, detailing what we’re doing and where money can be donated. Students in our group have also visited other GO classes to spread awareness for what we’ve been doing, using a Power-Point designed by other students from our group. A video was also made, featuring pictures from our trip, as well as the devastation Puerto Rico experienced following the hurricane.
Within the first week or so of being up, the GoFundMe page reached just over $100 of an arbitrary $5,000 goal, but has since seen an increase.
“Once we really started marketing it and beefing up the page, and actually utilized our students’ skills to enhance the page, it helped,” said Molly Roe, Faculty-led Program Manager in the Global Programs department, and one of our two program directors on the trip.
The page has currently raised $1,340 of its $5,000 goal in the month since it’s been up. According to Roe, the majority of the money raised has come from Susquehanna University faculty and staff. “I’m proud of what we’ve done so far, I do think that since we really started marketing it, it has gotten more attention,” Roe said. “I’d love to see even more because I’m seeing the posts from the organization about what they still need, and it’s a lot.”
“So I’m optimistic that we can continue the efforts and I’m proud of what we’ve done so far, but it is just kind of a start,” she added.
For those who wish to donate to the cause, you can do so at www.gofundme. com/GOPRProyectoEnlace.