(The following story was published in The New Britain Herald on Saturday, December 23, 2017. The Community Foundation of Greater New Britain would like to thank AFSCME Local 1214 for its generosity. To donate to the Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico Relief Fund, click here.)
AFSCME LOCAL DONATES $1,500 TO HURRICANE MARIA FUND
NEW BRITAIN – A local union has donated $1,500 to the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain’s Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico Relief Fund.
Cathy Bergren, Paul Morganti, Nancy Taylor and Adeline Yllanes from AFSCME Local 1214 recently presented a donation to CFGNB president David Obedzinski and CFGNB office manager and scholarship associate Kimberly Duncan.
Local 1214 represents 80 state employees at Charter Oak State College and the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium.
“We’ve been following the devastation that Hurricane Maria has caused since it struck Puerto Rico in September,” said Taylor, who chairs the union’s charitable contributions committee. “Supporting the Community Foundation’s hurricane relief effort gives us the opportunity to keep our donation local while reaching out to people on the island.”
“The needs of people in Puerto Rico, and those who have been displaced, are beyond imagination,” Morganti said, echoing the comments of his colleagues. “It’s an honor for us to give back to the communities we serve as state employees and higher education advocates.”
Yllanes’s husband is from Puerto Rico and most of his family lives there. He is now in San Juan as part of his job, but is also helping with relief efforts.
“When Hurricane Maria hit, the devastation was tangible,” Yllanes said. “Donating to the Puerto Rico Relief Fund was a huge gesture to help not only those on the island but to those here who needed to be heard and wanted to help in as many ways as possible. Sending that financial contribution was a metaphorical abrazo – that hug that we needed to feel from our loved ones suffering on the island.”
According to Obedzinski, 70 percent of the money raised through the Hurricane Maria Fund will help those who are suffering on the island, while the remaining 30 percent will be distributed to local programs helping those displaced by the disaster.
“We are grateful to the members of AFSCME Local 1214 for their generous and thoughtful contribution” Obedzinski said in announcing the donation.
“This fund is a great way for people in New Britain and the surrounding communities to support the more than 3.4 million Puerto Rican citizens ravaged by Hurricane Maria.”