MajorsSep 28, 2022
JFC’s 2022 ‘Hope for the Holidays’ Program Is an Adorable Menagerie IndependentsNov 09, 2022
Relief Fund Reopened for Jewelers Impacted by Hurricane Ian
Jewelers of America and Diamond Council of America have organized the fundraiser and extended the deadline for relief requests and contributions to Nov. 11.
New York—Two industry organizations are reviving the Jewelers Relief Fund to provide support to independently owned jewelers impacted by Hurricane Ian.
Diamond Council of America and Jewelers of America announced the fund is now collecting donations.
The organizations began the fund in 2017 to assist jewelers impacted by Hurricane Harvey, then Hurricane Irma. The fund continued to help jewelers in the wake of other disasters, natural and man-made.
The Jewelers Relief Fund is operated via a GoFundMe.
Business owners whose stores sustained physical damage from Hurricane Ian and would like to receive support from the fund now have until Nov. 11 to fill out a relief request form.
DCA and JA are asking industry members to pass news of the fund on to jewelers in Florida who might need it.
They also urge industry members to contribute money if possible, and welcome donations large and small. Contributions are tax deductible.
Diamond Council of America, a 501(c)(3) organization, will disperse 100 percent of the funds directly to independent jewelry stores.
“Our hearts go out to the retail jewelers who sustained significant damage by Hurricane Ian,” said JA President and CEO David J. Bonaparte.
“So many jewelry stores will have a long road ahead of them to reopening their doors. As an industry, we know that we rally together and our hope is the industry can come together once again to help those stores in financial need.”
Hurricane Ian’s death toll has topped 110, per current news reports, with the vast majority of the casualties in Florida.
That makes the storm the sixth-deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1980.
It is the deadliest storm in Florida since 1935.
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