Rebuilding continues -- Students who took part in a June installment of the ongoing SUNY Stands with Puerto Rico initiative patch a roof in Puerto Rico as part of rebuilding and revitalization efforts.
This past June, a SUNY Oswego faculty member and nine students continued the college’s connection with the ongoing SUNY Stands with Puerto Rico initiative that continues the rebuilding process after the island suffered catastrophic damage from a pair of 2017 hurricanes.
Joanne O'Toole of Oswego’s School of Education led a group of 14 students, including some from other SUNY schools, joining others from SUNY and CUNY for a variety of relief work June 16 to 30. O’Toole also served as a group leader last year, when Oswego was a key campus in establishing the effort sponsored by SUNY and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Partnering with the international Jewish relief organization NECHAMA, two Oswego-related teams worked on roof repairs one week, while the other two teams were in the National Rainforest of El Yunque and in agricultural settings; the next week they flipped work sites.
Chanel Meyer, a SUNY Oswego senior double major in Spanish adolescence education and in Spanish, went because she wanted to provide valuable service, appreciated a chance to step out of her comfort zone and saw the opportunity as “a perfect way to connect more deeply with the Puerto Rican community,” as a future Spanish educator, she said.
“I believe that breaking free from our areas of comfort are excellent ways of knowing what we are truly capable of, experiencing personal growth and better appreciating those who perform these tasks on a daily basis,” Meyer said.
Meaningful work
The work of the students varied as they went from area to area, but their efforts were intensive and meaningful for the project.
“In the houses, my team worked on repairing the roofs and ceilings of homes. We chiseled and hammered sections of the roofs, removed debris, filled in cracks, primed, sealed and repaired water damage on the interior of the homes,” Meyer explained. “In the agricultural setting, we macheted bamboo, cleared up waste from the farms, planted seeds and made compost.”
Work on trail restoration in the El Yunque rainforest included clearing gutters on the side of trails, fixing some French drains so water could run more smoothly and adding gravel so hikers could walk safely on the trails. The topography and the nature of the work made it more physically challenging.
“Since there were no machines that could transport the gravel to the bottom of the hill, each of us manually carried a wheelbarrow down to the bottom, added the gravel, walked back up to the top and repeated the process several times,” Meyer recalled. “Each day we hiked about 10 miles to complete this process. I was incredibly proud of my team for their dedication and persistence to perform each of these tasks to the best of their ability.”
Meyer found deep respect for NECHAMA and others who perform disaster relief work. “They do an incredible job teaching their volunteers how to do tasks that most are unfamiliar with and each staff member is truly passionate about the work they do,” she said.
The two weeks taught her a lot about the meaning of service, which one group leader described as “sacrifice for the true benefit of others,” Meyer said.
“I also learned the importance of teamwork and collaboration,” Meyer noted. “Each task that we did required team effort, for us to trust in someone else's ability, and to encourage, uplift and support one another. A positive and healthy work environment was crucial for us to do the jobs we were assigned to do and my team did just that.”
Meyer also found that, despite everything the people in the region have been through, Puerto Ricans remain very resilient and hospitable.
“My impressions of Puerto Rico is that it is a beautiful island with very welcoming people,” Meyer said. “Puerto Ricans still manage to be so kind and caring to all, despite the terrible disaster that still impacts them to this day. They are such selfless and generous people. This was such an enlightening and humbling experience for me and I am grateful that I was able to have participated in this.”
For more information on SUNY Stands with Puerto Rico, visit the SUNY webpage on the ongoing efforts.
Chanel Meyer, a SUNY Oswego senior double major in Spanish adolescence education and in Spanish, took part in SUNY Stands With Puerto Rico rebuilding efforts because she wanted to provide valuable service, appreciated a chance to step out of her comfort zone and saw the opportunity as “a perfect way to connect more deeply with the Puerto Rican community,” as a future Spanish educator, she said.