A young girl and her family in Dale City are doing what they can to help Puerto Ricans impacted by Hurricane Maria.
Jimena Pimentel and her mother Maricelis Pimentel were out on the corner of Trentdale Drive and Tango Lane with friends and family over the weekend, running a bake sale to raise funds for disaster relief to help Puerto Ricans recovering from the hurricane.
“That’s what Puerto Ricans do – we help each other out as much as possible,” said Pimentel.
According to Pimentel, her daughter was the one to come up with the bake sale concept, and helped her prepare pina coladas and cupcakes to raise the funds. “My daughter came up with this idea…she realized what was happening, and she said ‘Mommy, let’s do a bake sale’ because she had read about Amelia Bedelia making a bake sale to raise money for her school, so she came up with this idea,” said Pimentel.
For the Pimentel family the connection is personal, as they have several family members living in Puerto Rico – many who lost their homes – and Maricelis’ father has a generator he’s trying to keep going for the community.
“My dad was able to get a generator, so he is attaching extension cords to different neighbors, so they can at least have a couple hours of electricity for a refrigerator, or even to turn on a fan to get relief from the heat. Water is still rationed, food is still rationed,” said Pimentel.
In the coming week Pimentel will be traveling to Puerto Rico with the funds raised to help her family and their community.
The family will be setting up their cupcakes and pina colada stand at the same location on October 28 and October 29, and will be accepting donations for their efforts.
“We appreciate the support of everyone in the community,” said Pimentel.
Click here to see our Facebook Live coverage of the bake sale.
