I have been asked by a board member to make a statement here with regard to fundraising for those in need on SXM, as a result of Covid 19. After Irma, it became apparent that, that there were many people who tried to help those in need. The majority of them were honest and well-meaning and the money went where it was supposed to go. However, there were some who either sought to establish Go Fund Me accounts or other methods of fundraising for THEMSELVES or otherwise didn’t have the ability to do something that they had no experience doing, and results were less outstanding.
The need as a result of the current Covid 19 situation, if anything, is more than following Irma and will be for a longer term, in many situations, especially since many who are in need now have never fully recovered from Irma. Most of us here are true lovers of SXM and her PEOPLE are what has brought many of us back, over many years, in addition to all her other charms. We hurt for her people, as well as all of those here at home who are suffering from this situation. It’s only appropriate that we should want to help out those in need and I encourage you to do that, if your finances will allow. But when you do give, PLEASE be careful and give only to organizations that can be trusted to handle the gifts appropriately.

We refused to allow those fundraising posts to be made after a while post Irma, because of the above issues. We are not in the business of vetting charitable organizations and the purpose of this post is NOT to endorse any particular organization or group or to have members compile a list of those they feel are trustworthy. Please DO NOT respond to this message to suggest appropriate places to donate. If you donated post Irma to some organization or group and feel your gift was handled appropriately, reach out to them again and see what they might be doing to help now. Or contact trusted island friends to get THEIR recommendations for how you might best help out. I have been in touch with board members Bill and Elaine and Ritchard and they have made some recommendations for organizations that they feel are trustworthy. If you need a recommendation, please contact one or the other of them by private message.

Some in the past have mentioned having us here at TTOL raise funds for SXM. That is NOT what we do and we are not set up at all to manage such an endeavor. We are especially unable to do that at THIS time because, as you know, we are supported solely by local businesses. Those same local businesses have zero income at this time, and thus we here at TTOL have no income, yet our expenses go on.

We all know that we would all love to be able to return NOW to SXM and spend some money to help the island economy. That won’t be possible, at least for the short term. But perhaps we can make some contributions in another way to local residents, until we can return.