Embrace Girls Foundation members and supporters help Global Empowerment Mission pack relief supplies for distribution to Ian ravished communities.

MIAMI, FLORIDA, USA, October 3, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Embrace Girls Foundation students, parents and school principals turned out in mass on October 1 to help relief efforts targeting Floridians unhoused by Hurricane Ian.

More than 30 lime green tee shirt wearing Embrace foundation members trekked to the Global Empowerment Mission’s Doral, Florida headquarters early Saturday morning to pack boxes of medical supplies, food, water and non-perishables for distribution to the thousands of people left house-less following Ian’s devastating march across Cuba and Central and West Florida.

“I knew the need would be great” said Embrace Girls Founder and CEO Velma Lawrence. “I remember Hurricane Andrew like it was yesterday - I went through it.”

In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew killed 65 people and did more than $27 billion in damage in Florida, Louisiana and the Bahamas.

Ian had killed 86 people in Florida as of Sunday morning, with rescue operations still underway. Thousands remained without electricity and drinkable water. Damage to homes and property was estimated to be in the billions of dollars.

The Embrace Girls Foundation Inc. is a Florida based non-profit that provides uplifting, girl-centric programming for hundreds of girls in several public and private elementary and middle schools in Miami/Dade and Broward counties.
After Lawrence put the word out on Thursday, Embrace Girls, several parents and principals with Embrace programs in their schools boarded Embrace chartered vans to Doral, Florida – one of Global Empowerment Missions’ headquarters.

Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) organizes international relief efforts around the world, with large campaigns underway in war torn Ukraine, Pakistan, Cuba and now in parts of Ian ravished Florida.

GEM Chief Operations Officer Emily Fullmer said Embrace Girls packed a record 30 pallets with boxes over the course of the day. Each box contains enough food and other supplies to sustain a family over a week.

The pallets have already been trucked to a Fort Myers’ Florida church, where Fullmer said they would be distributed by local volunteers who would make sure the supplies reached those most in need.

“These volunteers live there, know the back roads and know their people better than we ever could,” Fullmer said.
GEM has ongoing relief operations “in more places than I can name right now,” Fullmer said, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and in California.

She called the Embrace Girls Foundation members “the most organized and pumped-up group we have had here in a long time. They did a record number of boxes for one assemble line. Because of their work those boxes are in the field and hands of families in need.”

Mandarin Lakes K-8 Academy Principal Calondria E. Williams, who hosts an Embrace Girls Foundation chapter at her school, said packing the boxes and filling the pallets was not only “a wonderful opportunity to work with GEM,” but was also “about service. This is the rent we pay. I’m excited for our students to see what their work means, how it can make a difference.”

Former Miami Gardens Mayor and longtime Embrace supporter Shirley Gibson said she was on hand because “it’s important for our young women to see us working, see us participating and know this is something they should do. Ms. Lawrence has always said it is important to show our young women what it is to give back.

“We do this all the time.” Embrace Founder Lawrence said she initially called GEM to donate supplies but “when I called they said they could use help packing already donated supplies. I knew it was inconvenient for our members at such short notice, but things don’t happen because they are convenient - to serve is to give when it's inconvenient.

“We teach our girls that you can’t just receive, you have to give,” Lawrence said. “We felt like we would be seriously remiss if we didn’t do something to help our neighbors in whatever way we can. It cost us nothing but time and was well worth it - we are coordinating with GEM for several return visits each month.”

To donate to the GEM Ian Hurricane Relief effort, go to https://www.globalempowermentmission.org/financials/how-to-donate/.

For more information about Embrace Girls programs or to make a donation, call 877-466-4769, or go to the website, www.embracegirlpower.org.

Velma Lawrence
Embrace Girls Foundation Inc.
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GEM relief efforts