While millions of Americans sat down Thursday to lavish feasts in warm and brightly lit homes, three Traverse City residents spent the holiday in Puerto Rico, where more than half of inhabitants still don’t have power two months after Hurricane Maria and access to resources like running water, food and medical supplies remains limited.

Miriam Pico Younce, Jamie Kramer and Morgan Burke-Beyers have spent the past week on the ground in the U.S. territory, distributing supplies they brought from Traverse City and assisting local island officials and nonprofits in providing aid to residents.  “We’re up in the highest of the mountains in some of the worst-hit areas,” Pico Younce told The Ticker via a spotty phone connection in the central-eastern municipality of Corozal. “It’s been 61 days (since the hurricane), and some of these people haven’t seen anybody or any help until we came. They started crying when they saw us. While people in the cities could get power and running water in six months to a year, where we are in the mountains, they’re not likely getting anything for another two years at least.”

Pico Younce, a native Puerto Rican who relocated from the island to Traverse City with her parents when she was four, solicited donations in TC and worked with Kramer and Burke-Beyers to bring three full shopping carts of Sam’s Club supplies to the island. The trio connected with a group of U.S. military veterans – led by former Army cavalry scout Jason Maddy – to bring water filters, food, medicine and other supplies by jeep to remote regions like Manatí still blocked by debris and inaccessible to most transport.

“(Maddy) took it upon himself to come down here with other volunteer vets who are going in where other people can’t go,” says Pico Younce. “He’s saved at least six lives, where people needed an oxygen tank or were running out of medicine and about to die. He’s looking for more veterans to come down there. They provide lodging and transport, they just need bodies – people who are trained in rescue and recon.” (To connect with Maddy, message his Facebook page here.)

The trio is also distributing handwritten letters of support from Traverse City residents after Pico Younce and Kramer hosted a letter-writing party at Right Brain Brewery last weekend. “We’re running from house to house up and down the mountains in 100-degree heat passing things out,” says Pico Younce. “We’ve got toys and candies for the kids. People are so grateful…their faces light up and they hug us. When they find out we’re not FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) but just two moms and a guy who wanted to help, they can’t believe it.”

Thanksgiving looked very different in Puerto Rico than it did elsewhere in America Thursday, with families huddled together in the dark sharing rice and beans and turkey. “Most of them don’t have power or light, so they sing songs and tell stories,” says Pico Younce. “The only thing anyone can talk about is Hurricane Maria, asking each other how they survived and what their stories are.”

Kramer, who used to live on the adjacent island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, says she “felt helpless” watching the news coverage of Hurricane Maria and was compelled to take action. Prior to this trip, Kramer and Pico Younce held several local fundraisers and donation drives in September to load up a plane with supplies and funds for Puerto Rico residents. “I knew Miriam felt the same way I did, and two brains are usually better than one, so we teamed up,” says Kramer. “Morgan is carrying around cameras and documenting everything. I wanted an outlet for the desperation I was feeling, and this (trip) provided a good opportunity for that.” 

Kramer and Pico Younce say aid in the areas of the island they’re traveling is primarily being distributed by nonprofits and local municipalities working together, rather than through federal assistance. “It seems to be how things are getting done, that people are banding together and working and doing it themselves,” says Pico Younce. The duo say federal aid is reaching some island cities but not the more remote regions, and express concerns over rumors circulating among island officials that FEMA will soon withdraw from Puerto Rico.

“These people aren’t getting the help they need,” says Kramer. “I don’t know what the disconnect is, but it seems like FEMA doesn’t understand the full scope of what’s happening here. There’s debris up to mid-thigh, everywhere you look there are huge piles of trash. This is part of the United States, and I’ve seen things that make me feel like I’m in a third-world country. I don’t think this would be occurring anywhere else in the contiguous United States.”

The Traverse City trio hope residents back home will continue to support their fellow Americans in Puerto Rico. They recommend donating to local groups who are working on the ground on the island versus larger national nonprofits, suggesting Marc Ministry as one such group (the nonprofit can be reached by email at Marcministry@gmail.com). People can also donate food supplies directly to residents, with top-needed items including rice, canned beans, canned tuna, canned veggies and canned fruit. Those supplies can be sent to Escuela Superior Especializada Vocational de Corozal Pablo David Virgos Marrero, Barrio Abra's Sector Mavilla, Coronal, Puerto Rico, 00783. As a municipal school, the organization cannot accept cash donations but will distribute any supplies sent directly to island residents.

Pictured: Jamie Kramer (front row, far left), Miriam Pico Younce (front row, center) and Morgan Burke-Beyers (back row, second from right, standing) in Puerto Rico. Photo credit: Miriam Pico Younce.