The Island Spirit Fund

For the past few months, our new partner Protectores de Cuencas in Puerto Rico has been hard at work planting trees to restore land in the Guanica State Forest, especially coastal areas that are prone to erosion and areas burned in wildfires. They've been able to purchase a water truck and pickup trucks so that they can water, weed, and maintain more than 13 acres of reforested land. These tools are essential, as new trees need to be watered as many as 17 times per month!

Meanwhile, in the Houston, TX area, another new partner, Bayou City Waterkeeper, has used their donations to work with local government and community members to protect 269 acres of wetlands, convene decisionmakers, hold community meetings, and conduct training. By protecting wetlands, communities will be less vulnerable to flooding like what was seen in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Our long-time partners continue their important work, as well. For example:

• La Maraña invited community leaders in Carolina, in northeast Puerto Rico, to imagine what a just recovery would look like. They also openedthree water stations and a community well in eastern Puerto Rico so that access to clean water is available even if weathering future storms.
• The Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands has funded the removal of 260 cubic yards of hurricane debris from the shorelines and roadways of Coral Bay on St. John to date. That’s the equivalent of more than seven school buses! They’ve also worked with a local university to recycle glass into sandbags, to offer flood protection to residents and businesses.
• The St. John Long-Term Recovery Group has experienced setbacks in their work rebuilding homes destroyed by the hurricanes since COVID-19 reached the island. They had to pause home reconstruction for vulnerable senior residents and experienced delays in construction permits and supply shipments due to COVID-19 precautions. Over the summer, they began to resume work, with socially distancing, portable hand washing stations, and masks for construction crew members.
• For months, Doorways of NWFL had to close their Community Resource Center in Panama City, FL due to COVID-19, but they fielded thousands of calls for assistance. Last month, they reopened the center with safety protocols in place and delivered food to homebound and high-risk residents with the help of volunteers.

Whether reforesting land, protecting wetlands, envisioning future recovery, giving clean water access, removing debris, offering flood protection, or delivering food, these organizations are doing essential work. Thank you for your generous support to the Island Spirit Fund that helps it all happen.

In the two years since the launch of the Island Spirit Fund, we’ve seen both major progress and some setbacks. Our nonprofit partners in disaster-affected places in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the U.S. mainland are working hard day-in and day-out to bring normalcy. They have completed 179,766 hours of volunteer and paid work, served 9,987 clients, constructed or repaired 254 homes, and planted 1,581 trees, and held 180 community events.

In some ways, the recovery is well underway, though in other ways, it’s still just beginning. With this in mind, we’ve partnered with both new organizations and some familiar groups for next year.

Today we’re excited to introduce two new partners of the Island Spirit Fund:

• Protectores de Cuencas is restoring protected forests in Puerto Rico that have been degraded by wildfires and hurricanes. They work to maintain the forest and control invasive species. They are collecting seeds today, with the goal of planting more than 65,000 trees and 100 unique tree species to keep up the diversity of the forest tomorrow.
• Bayou City Waterkeeper is conducting wetland analysis near Houston, TX and across the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Harvey proved these areas are vulnerable to flooding, so they are engaging city, county, and federal decision-makers in the push for natural solutions, like oyster sea walls, to storm surge.

Thanks to Cruzan Rum’s ongoing commitment to the Island Spirit Fund, we can ensure steady support for these nonprofits and other continuing partners, even as COVID-19 creates uncertainty. We’re grateful for this long-term partnership!