NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - South Florida volunteers put together relief kits for Texas residents affected by recent winter storms as part of a local organization that said they will frequently be sending support to the Lone Star state.
7News cameras captured volunteers hard at work at a warehouse in Northwest Miami-Dade, Sunday.
Kimberly Bentley with the Global Empowerment Mission showed the contents of a kit.
“We’ve got the [personal protective equipment] masks. We’ve got the toothbrushes,” she said.
The local show of support is currently headed to Texas after winter storms left millions of residents out in the cold.
“Miami has experienced their fair share of hurricanes and people rallied together,” said Kimberly Bentley with the Global Empowerment Mission. “Now that Texas is experiencing this blackout, we’re rallying to help them.”
Volunteers worked tirelessly to fill trucks with boxes of supplies for families in need.
“One went out yesterday. It’s in Denton, Texas right now,” said Bentley. “We’ve got another one going out on Tuesday to Austin. All over the place.”
Michael Capponi, the president of Global Empowerment Mission, explained what makes these supply runs particularly challenging.
“Unlike most disasters, where it is one area that you can focus on, here you don’t even know where to begin,” he said. “On top of that, it’s happening in Louisiana, Oklahoma, all throughout the state, so we need a lot of support.”
A load of much-needed supplies is now being collected around the country to send to the hard-hit areas.
“You can see all the people lined up, all the supplies, so all of these are Miami supplies, which is great,” said Capponi. “We’ll have two more trucks this week and probably another six by next week, so it’s a pretty large operation.”
Global Empowerment Mission has teamed up with former “Real Housewives of New York” star Bethany Frankel and her B Strong Initiative to make it all happen.
“These boxes have pretty much things that can sustain a family of five for a good two, three weeks, maybe even a month,” she said, “and that’s what we can do, and we’re doing our best to help as many people as possible.”
The kits are valued at about $132 each, and each truck holds $184,000 worth of goods.
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