Several Tampa Bay businesses created donation drives over the past week, collecting supplies ranging from shoes to baby formula as people gathered aid to send to Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Two back-to-back earthquakes shook Venezuela\u2019s Caribbean coast<\/a> on June 24. As of Tuesday, more than 1,900 are dead and tens of thousands<\/a> are still missing.<\/p>\n For many in the Tampa Bay area with connections to the country, the news was shocking and heartbreaking.<\/p>\n \u201cI just felt horrible,\u201d said Andrea Myers, chief marketing officer for the Floor Center of Tampa Bay<\/a>. \u201cI just cannot believe it\u2019s one thing after another. We cannot catch a break in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n Though she\u2019s lived in the U.S. for 25 years, Myers said she feels deeply for everyone in her native country. She quickly got to work calling high school friends to get updates and find out how she can help those impacted.<\/p>\n The Floor Center of Tampa Bay is among several businesses partnering with the Tampa Bay Latin Chamber<\/a> to collect donations, including medication, medical supplies, nonperishable food and hygiene products, to send to Venezuela.<\/p>\n ALSO READ: In Doral, volunteers race against the clock to help Venezuela’s earthquake victims<\/a><\/p>\n The chamber, for which Myers is an ambassador, is teaming with businesses to coordinate donation drop-offs. But, she said, she knows many businesses with personal connections to Venezuela are also collecting donations.<\/p>\n \u201cI honestly just say Google, \u2018Venezuelan restaurant\u2019 and go there,\u201d Myers said. \u201cYou just need to make sure that they have an organization that they\u2019re working with \u2026 who are actually going to be able to actually get to Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n Mango Space<\/a>, a co-working office in Tampa, is also collecting donations. CEO Bo Peng said several of the company\u2019s clients are Venezuelan-owned.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very close to what\u2019s happening,\u201d Peng said. \u201cSo whatever we can do to support the relief effort, we\u2019re really glad that we can help.\u201d<\/p>\n There has been a lot of community support, he said, resulting in a lobby full of donations. People from all sorts of backgrounds and ethnicities are supporting the cause, he added, not just those with personal connections to Venezuela.<\/p>\n Getting the donations to Venezuela<\/p>\n While it\u2019s easy to collect donations here in the U.S., chamber president Diana Walker said it\u2019s \u201ca little bit harder\u201d to make sure it arrives at its intended destination.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of red tape when you\u2019re dealing with different governments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s one challenge to secure planes to transport physical donations, Walker said, it\u2019s another to get permission to fly into Venezuela and then find ways to distribute the donations.<\/p>\n She advised to make sure whoever you\u2019re donating to has a contact in Venezuela who can make sure your contributions will make it there.<\/p>\n ALSO READ: ‘Surfside a hundred times over’: South Florida journalist witnesses twin earthquakes in Venezuela<\/a><\/p>\n The chamber is partnering with Comandito Tampa<\/a>, a group that Walker said was able to secure a charter plane to transport the donations to Venezuela. The chamber also has two members currently in Venezuela who she said are their boots on the ground.<\/p>\n