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With family in Puerto Rico, Upper St. Clair teen raises $8,000 for relief

By Jacob Calvin Meyer staff Writer jmeyer@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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When natural disasters strike, they often leave people feeling hopeless. Those affected by the disasters feel helpless, while people who want to help them feel weak or small.

That’s how Jose Ramirez felt when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September. Ramirez grew up in the United States-owned territory before moving to the continental U.S. when he was 9, and the Upper St. Clair resident – now an adult – still has plenty of relatives on the island.

“I felt completely powerless trying to figure out how to get some sort of flight to get my 97-year-old grandmother out and get in contact with my family,” he said.

Shortly after Hurricane Maria struck the island, Ramirez’s daughter Rosemary, a seventh-grader at Fort Couch Middle School, wanted to help. She went on a custom T-shirt website and designed two different shirts to raise money for Hurricane Maria.

“The adults, we were all sort of spinning our wheels and making phone calls,” said Katie Talarico-Ramirez, Rosemary’s mother. “But she sat down and got to work and came out with something concrete.”

Three weeks later, the fundraiser has donated more than $8,000 to the American Red Cross.

“I didn’t think anything like this would happen,” Rosemary said. “I just thought I’d make a few T shirts and give them to friends and family. The estimated profit was $416 from the website. I set my goal at 50 sold shirts, and that was the estimated profit. We had that within a few days.”

The website links spread quickly, being shared on Facebook and with Upper St. Clair School District students, parents and community members buying T-shirts and donating.

Photo courtesy of customink.com

Photo courtesy of customink.com

To buy a fundraiser T-shirt, visit www.bit.ly/puertoricofundraiser.

Photo courtesy of customink.com

Photo courtesy of customink.com

To buy a fundraiser T-shirt, visit www.bit.ly/puertoricofundraiser.

Over the three-week fundraiser, Rosemary sold 224 T-shirts at $20 apiece for a total of $4,076. Rosemary’s mother Katie Talarico-Ramirez said a local family matched the money Rosemary raised, but wanted to remain anonymous. In total, $8,152 was donated to the American Red Cross Hurricane Maria relief from Rosemary’s fundraiser.

“It just makes me happy to know that I helped some people,” Rosemary said.

Because of the fundraiser’s success – and the amount of need still present in Puerto Rico – Rosemary decided to open up another fundraiser for the next three weeks. To purchase a T-shirt or donate, visit www.bit.ly/puertoricofundraiser.

In the last month since the hurricane, Ramirez said all of his family members are still OK, but none of them have power or enough water, while most have no cell phone service. He said knowing that in some way, however big or small, his daughter’s fundraiser helped people in his family makes him proud.

“I think that if she is learning a giving spirit and a spirit about caring about others, that gives me hope for future generations,” Jose Ramirez said. “She’s a wonderful girl, and I couldn’t be more proud of her ingenuity and her thoughtfulness and her loving nature. I can’t say enough of how proud I am of my daughter.”

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