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Florida Jeweler Raising Funds for Puerto Rico
After weathering Irma, J.R. Dunn Jewelers is looking to help Puerto Ricans in the wake of Maria.
South Florida jeweler J.R. Dunn Jewelers has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the Food Bank of Puerto Rico.
Lighthouse Point, Fla.-- After weathering Irma, J.R. Dunn Jewelers is looking to help Puerto Ricans in the wake of Maria.
The south Florida jeweler has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the Food Bank of Puerto Rico. J.R. Dunn Jewelers will match the first $10,000 raised, Vice President Sean Dunn said. As of Tuesday morning, donations totaled $8,400.
The company has set a total goal of $100,000 and 100 percent of the money raised will go to the food bank.
Dunn said that the store was unharmed by Irma, but expressed concern for Puerto Rico after it endured both Irma and Maria. He noted that many south Floridians have connections to Puerto Rico, including himself.
"I wanted to do something since all of my wife's family lives in Puerto Rico and we spend a lot of time there," Dunn said. "We were fortunately able to communicate with them using WhatsApp and get first hand reports as to what was going on."
"They fared pretty well all things considered, but there are many in other parts of the island that were less fortunate. I started to hear that electricity may not come back on for months and there were situations where people were drinking out of creeks and running out of food in some of the more remote areas."
Dunn said that he researched different organizations he could support and settled on the food bank as the best option, in part because of its ratings and good track record. Most of the organization's online presence is in Spanish, so Dunn realized that he could help the organization reach an English-speaking population through the GoFundMe page.
Last week, National Jeweler spoke with a jeweler from Puerto Rico, Reinhold Jewelers’ owner Marie Helene Morrow, to get her take on how the public can help.
Additionally, Jewelers of America and its partners have established a fund to help jewelers in the wake of all natural disasters, including the recent hurricanes.
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