Men’s Basketball Team Assists Relief Work in Puerto Rico

Hurricane Maria took precedence over a majority of newsfeeds as it hit Puerto Rico last September and left hundreds of thousands without water, food, shelter and power. Now, four months after the storm, people still face life without clean water or power, but the U.S territory receives little to no mention. Angela Lento, CollegeInsider.com Vice President and Co-founder, however, is determined to create awareness of the needs that still remain.

Lento has pledged to donate $25 to Water Mission for every assist a member of the Liberty University Men’s Basketball Team makes during conference play this season. This initiative is called Assist for Puerto Rico.

“Water Mission is a non-profit whose mission is to honor God by developing, implementing and sharing best-in-class safe water solutions that transform as many lives as possible,” Special Events Manager for Water Mission, Kyle Whitcroft said. “Assist for Puerto Rico is helping us do real, life-changing work.”

The idea for it came about when Lento came across a story just before Christmas about how badly Puerto Rico and other island nations were still suffering.

“It bothered me that so many residents of Puerto Rico have received little or no assistance, so I thought I could help by donating some money,” Lento said. “Then, I had the idea that we might be able to create more awareness if we could do this through a sport.”

The pieces continued to fall into place the day after Christmas, while Lento was working on a feature story on Liberty’s point guard and Puerto Rican native, Georgie Pacheo-Oritz.

“The next day I reached out to Coach McKay and it all came together within 24 hours,” Lento said. “So often things like this are slowed to a crawl by red tape but the people at Liberty got a stamp of approval literally overnight. That was key because the basketball team played its first Big South Conference game just a couple days later.”

The startup of this initiative hit home for Pacheo-Ortiz, who lived in Puerto Rico until he was 14 years old and whose whole family still lives on the island.

“It means a lot for me and for my team because we just get to go, and play, and try to also help Puerto Rico and Water Mission bring water and other sources,” Pacheo-Ortiz said. “This is helping me and my family and friends, all the people back home. It is a great way to do it by playing the sport that we love. We want to win, but also we want to help.”

Pacheo-Ortiz reflected on when he first found out about Hurricane Maria in September.

“I thought the hurricane was never going to hit Puerto Rico because they always announce a hurricane or storm coming and it will just pass by,” Pacheo-Ortiz said. “But this time it actually hit. I was really worried about my family because I talk to them every day. I contacted them on that day when it happened, and they were okay.”

Specifically, Assist for Puerto Rico will raise funds to provide sustainable energy solutions like solar power and bring water filtration systems called Living Water Treatment Systems (LWTS) to areas of need.

“Water Mission has successfully provided safe water in 39 communities and we are reaching more people in need as quickly as possible,” Whitcroft said. “Currently, our efforts are focused on the regions of Orocvis, Aguas Buenas, San Lorenza, Corazal and hope to begin work in Ponce Barranquitos very soon. The need is still large, we are still assessing communities that do not have water flowing.”

As of Jan. 27, The Flames have a total of 118 assists during conference play , with eight games left to play. If interested, donations can be made to join the initiative at www.assistPR.com.

“Assist for Puerto Rico will only produce a few thousand dollars, which is not much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a start,” Lento said.