“Luckily, our club in Vieques was directly affected but was not directly impacted. So we were able to reopen our club really fast,” says Olga Ramos, President of Boys & Girls Club Puerto Rico. “Our Vieques community is a small community and it’s committed. And our Boys & Girls Club has become kind of the community center for the Vieques people.”

The Club has been handling everything from assisting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide Housing & Urban Development meals, Ramos explains in this interview with Beet.TV.

“Basically our club is where all of the NGO’s are coming together to provide relief efforts and help to the island. Besides our educational program, we’re doing everything we can do to make sure that the community bounces back to normal.”

Located eight miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland, Vieques relies on its own water sources, which were shut down by Hurricane Maria. So finding replacement supplies has been at the forefront of most relief efforts.

“Last week, we were awarded by the Banco Popular Foundation a desalination plant that we’re going to be taking to Vieques next Monday,” Ramos says. “As well, we were able to get a community water tank that would allow us to provide water to the community, either filtered rain water or pond water and make sure that we provide safe water for our kids.

“Looking into the medium term, we’re partnering with other institutions to make sure that we provide a sustainable system where Vieques people can get purified water for drinking.”

On Sept. 20, when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the group ViequesLove was formed to provide assistance to the island. As of Nov. 9, the group had raised $879,420 from 7,122 donors via its GoFundMe website.

Stand With Puerto, The Industry Steps Up 

This video reports on the pressing issues facing Puerto Rico and the organizations that are having an impact. It is part of a media industry initiative titled Stand With Puerto Rico. It is organized by Beet.TV and Omnicom Media Group along with founding partners AT&T AdWorks and Teads. Please find additional videos from the series here. The series was recorded in Miami at the Festival of Media/LATAM on October 30. 

“Vieques is almost an indescribable place for most people. If you haven’t been there, if you haven’t lived there, it’s hard to understand it,” says Stephen Mueller, a Principal of the aid group ViequesLove who called the island home for three years. “There is something about the island, the community, the people there that’s just very different than what most of us have experienced.”

Since ViequesLove was formed the night that Maria struck Puerto Rico, it’s been juggling all manner of requests for assistance.

“We’ve gotten a lot of very interesting asks,” Mueller says in this interview with Beet.TV. “The most recent one that we did is we successfully got two radiators down there specific to the generators for water sanitation,” a route that stretched from Atlanta to Miami to the Puerto Rico mainland to Vieques.

“We’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to use private planes to get things down there,” Mueller adds. “There are a lot of moving pieces. It takes a lot of organization and creativity.”

Having been a resident and owned a business on Vieques, Mueller is well versed in the day in and day out milieu.

“Something as simple as going to the postal box requires about 30 minutes of your time, because inevitably you’re going to meet plenty of people that you know, and you all stop and chat, ask how their day’s going. It’s this huge sense of community and involvement.

“For the three years that we lived there, it was probably one of the best times of our lives and probably one of the few places that have truly felt like home.”

As of Nov. 6, ViequesLove had raised $873,696 from 7,084 donors via its GoFundMe website.

Stand With Puerto, The Industry Steps Up 

This video reports on the pressing issues facing Puerto Rico and the organizations that are having an impact. It is part of a media industry initiative titled Stand With Puerto Rico. It is organized by Beet.TV and Omnicom Media Group along with founding partners AT&T AdWorks and Teads. Please find additional videos from the series here. The series was recorded in Miami at the Festival of Media/LATAM on October 30. 

“Three hurricanes, the California fires, we helped with the shooting in Las Vegas and we also assisted the Mexican Red Cross with the earthquake. We can’t do it without the help of volunteers and people who are ready to deploy at the time of need,” says Meinhofer.

In this interview with Beet.TV, Meinhofer welcomes additional volunteer manpower, but she stresses that preparation for any man-made or natural crisis requires advance preparation.

“There’s a need anywhere that there is a Red Cross chapter. This is the time for people to go to their local chapter, get training, get registered.”

When it comes to hurricanes, this has probably been the worst season the Red Cross has ever seen, according to Meinhofer.

“We heard about Irma and Maria coming right when we were working Hurricane Harvey,” Meinhofer says. “So as we are attending to two other hurricanes, Puerto Rico is also getting ready for the hit of Maria.”

In the U.S., the Red Cross manages some of the shelters that open when crises occur. “Puerto Rico is in charge of managing. So we support the government in whatever it is that they need to support the people from the island.”

To date, more than 500 Red Cross staff and volunteers have visited all 78 of the municipalities in Puerto Rico, according to Meinhofer, distributing food, water, Pampers and other supplies. “They come from anywhere. We have people from Alaska, we have people from Michigan.”

One of the group’s most important services has been “reunifying” people who are separated from their families because the power grid has been immobilized. The Red Cross uses satellites to reconnect them via their cell phones, regardless of whether family members are on Puerto Rico or elsewhere.

Acknowledging that the impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico will be long-lasting, Meinhofer encourages the involvement of new Red Cross volunteers. “We can’t do it without the help of volunteers and people who are ready to deploy at the time of need,” she says.

Stand With Puerto, The Industry Steps Up 

This video reports on the pressing issues facing Puerto Rico and the organizations that are having an impact. It is part of a media industry initiative titled Stand With Puerto Rico. It is organized by Beet.TV and Omnicom Media Group along with founding partners AT&T AdWorks and Teads. Please find additional videos from the series here. The series was recorded in Miami at the Festival of Media/LATAM on October 30. 

MIAMI – There are only so many first responders in a particular city or an entire country to deal with natural disasters like Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. This is where groups like Team Rubicon, an organization of military veterans, play a key role.

Brands that partner with Team Rubicon and other volunteer groups via sponsorships, donations or providing “boots on the ground” in disaster areas are “not just selling a product. You’re creating an aura about your brand and helping bring that to light in a very human way,” says Joe Rockhill, VP, Integrated Sales & Marketing, Fox Networks Group.

In this interview with Beet.TV, Rockhill explains how Fox wants to foster greater integrations between brand marketers and relief groups by creating a “groundbreaking docuseries” of original programming highlighting the activities of Team Rubicon. Following the interview with Rockhill, Team Rubicon Operations Section Leader Michael Lloyd provides a ground-level report on the group’s relief efforts to date in Isabella, a municipality in the northwest region of Puerto Rico.

Led by award-winning director Keif Davidson, Fox’s series about Team Rubicon will appear on Fox Broadcasting, FX, Fox Sports and National Geographic and will “live in culturally relevant programming and time periods,” such as The Long Road Home on National Geographic, Veteran’s Day initiatives and takeovers on FX, as well as programming like the Daytona 500, The World Series, Thanksgiving and Christmas on Fox Sports.

“Ultimately, the idea is that it would culminate in a 90-minute documentary that would live on our portfolio and air around Memorial Day of next year,” Rockhill says.

Fox is meeting with brands to see how they can “come on board and help tell the story of the men and women that are part of Team Rubicon, the heroes that are helping to rebuild these communities,” Rockhill says. “We want to understand what the initiatives are that our partners have and then find that alignment with what we’re doing with Team Rubicon so we can integrate them appropriately.”

Team Rubicon’s Lloyd relates how the organization has had a presence in Isabella for more than a month, providing medical care, clearing debris and helping to facilitate the availability of drinking water.

“Our medical teams have seen hundreds of patients,” Lloyd recounts. “In some cases just providing some mental health care as well.

“I think where our passion comes from is we’ve had a good opportunity to get to know the people and really experience what they’re going through on a personal level. The devastation on the island is complete. It’s an austere environment. It’s been one of the most gratifying Team Rubicon experiences that I’ve ever had.”

Stand With Puerto, The Industry Steps Up 

This video reports on the pressing issues facing Puerto Rico and the organizations that are having an impact. It is part of a media industry initiative titled Stand With Puerto Rico. It is organized by Beet.TV and Omnicom Media Group along with founding partners AT&T AdWorks and Teads. Please find additional videos from the series here. The series was recorded in Miami at the Festival of Media/LATAM on October 30. 

In the wake of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, for the media industry “It’s going backwards, 25 years ago. You have to take your car and visit your clients, you have to do radio, probably billboards and basics to communicate,” says Andres Claudio, GM of Omnicom’s Hearts & Science agency on the island. “Life is before Maria and after Maria.”

Freddie Hernandez, who runs P&G’s operations in Puerto Rico, is already looking beyond relief to reconstruction—rebuilding infrastructure while convincing companies to invest there for the future. “We will recover from this. We will impact the communities and we will get to a better position,” he says.

Beet.TV interviewed Claudio at this week’s Festival of Media/LATAM conference, where the STAND WITH PUERTO RICO: The Industry Steps Up initiative was launched. His interview is followed by a segment with Hernandez that was produced by P&G  in Puerto Rico where one of the company’s mobile Ace detergent units was operating.

“This is a time that companies have to show their commitment to the island and the community with their brands,” says Claudio. “Besides advertising, this is the perfect moment for companies to get connected to the people with their realities and needs.”

On Puerto Rico, brands don’t have to look very far to identify with causes and be “relevant” to the situation, according to Claudio. “Once the brand understands there is a need in the market, you can relate your brand to that particular need. It gets a connection that people will love and people will acknowledge that you are doing something right for them.”

After thanking the organizers of the Festival of Media/LATAM for hosting and supporting the STAND WITH PUERTO RICO initiative, Hernandez explained that the relief mode is still under way and that sometimes, the basic necessities aren’t so obvious.

“We take things for granted. We never thought that just having your laundry done was so important to people. It’s overwhelming to see how people are reacting to this effort,” says Hernandez.

As relief progresses to recovery, reconstruction will follow, posing more challenges that will require widespread participation and support. “The donations that we’re getting and the support that we’re getting is fantastic but it’s not going to last a lot,” Hernandez explains. “We need companies to look at Puerto Rico once again as a place to invest, as a place to bring their best talent to grow our economy, to leverage the talent that we have on this beautiful island, to help us and together bring this island to the future.”

Claudio is realistic and optimistic looking forward. “It’s not easy but you can do it and make it happen. This is a time that companies have to show the commitment to the island and the community with their brands,” he says.

Stand With Puerto, The Industry Steps Up 

This video reports on the pressing issues facing Puerto Rico and the organizations that are having an impact. It is part of a media industry initiative titled Stand With Puerto Rico. It is organized by Beet.TV and Omnicom Media Group along with founding partners AT&T AdWorks and Teads. Please find additional videos from the series here. The series was recorded in Miami at the Festival of Media/LATAM on October 30.