SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 The Latinas Run Club used their Sunday meetup to raise money and supplies to help people trying to survive in Venezuela after two catastrophic earthquakes hit the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of friends who are from Venezuela, so I felt connected, and I felt like we needed to do something,\u201d Latinas Run Club founder Noemi Ottenwalder said.<\/p>\n
Ottenwalder said she founded the club as a safe space for Latina women to come together and make friends through fitness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen something like that is happening in Venezuela, we can do more than just running,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ottenwalder said Venezuelan women make up the majority of their group, and with Sunday\u2019s run lining up with Venezuela\u2019s Independence Day, she said the Hispanic community rallied behind the cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cVenezuela has been through a lot, so seeing the Hispanic community come together has been giving me high hopes because we feel like we\u2019re on our own,\u201d volunteer Claudia Abonte said.<\/p>\n
Abonte was born in Venezuela. She said life there after the earthquakes has been a fight for basic survival without much government help.<\/p>\n
She says the community there and across the border lines has been picking up the slack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a place in everyone\u2019s hearts, and we can see everyone\u2019s kindness through all the donations and all the words and all the prayers that they\u2019ve given to us so far,\u201d Abonte said.<\/p>\n
Through the run, their club was able to raise close to $4,000, through raffles and donations, which they say they\u2019ll use to send supplies down to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what the world should be,\u201d said Alex Khianthalat, a runner. \u201cWe should all support each other. We should all come together whenever we need to be together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Latinas Run Club meets every Sunday. They are continuing to accept donations<\/a> after their run.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n