More than $500,000 has been donated so far for the families of the six construction workers killed and two injured in the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. The financial outpouring, in contributions large and small, has streamed in over the past four days to fundraisers hosted by nonprofit organizations, the Baltimore city government, the company that employed the men and individuals.
The workers were filling potholes on the bridge when the Dali cargo ship slammed into it around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. The bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, were recovered from the water Wednesday. The other four men are missing and presumed dead, including Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, and Miguel Luna, 49. The names of two victims have not been released.
Susana Barrios, vice president of the Latino Racial Justice Circle, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that provides scholarships and legal funding assistance for Latinos in Maryland, said her organization launched a GoFundMe the day after the bridge collapsed when they learned the victims were Latino. They coordinated with other Baltimore area groups that work with immigrants and set a goal of raising $18,000.
That goal was quickly eclipsed, Barrios said. By 6 p.m. more than $98,000 had been collected from 1,759 donors. The outpouring, Barrios said, came from a wide cross-section of people devastated by the news that the men had gone to work and would never return home.
“Baltimore is Smalltimore, so everybody knows somebody,” said Barrios, 52, who moved to Maryland from Guatemala 42 years ago. “It could have been any of us … and we are all so helpless, so what can we do? Maybe give $10 here or $5. It just makes us feel like we’re doing something.”
Overwhelmed by the response, the organization closed its fundraiser and directed new contributors to the Baltimore Civic Fund’s fundraiser for the families, which was set up in coordination with the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MIMA). Barrios said the nonprofit will coordinate with Baltimore County officials who are working with the victims’ families to distribute the funds.
By Saturday afternoon, the Civic Fund had received 3,764 donations totaling $311,465, Rachel Donegan, the fund’s director of partnerships, said in an email. Individual donations range from $1 to $2,500.
Donegan said the Fund had received calls and emails from employers wishing to match donations by their employees, retail establishments who plan to put a QR code for the donation site at their registers, and churches and small businesses that plan to share the donation link via newsletters. Individuals and businesses also contacted the fund offering in-kind services.
The Baltimore Civic Fund will disburse funds in partnership with MIMA and the mayor’s office, Donegan said.
Some 130,000 immigrants work in the construction industry in the Baltimore and Washington regions, making up 39 percent of the workforce, according to Casa, a Maryland-based Latino and immigration advocacy organization that is working to support the victims’ families. Latin Americans are one of the fastest-growing demographics in the region, surging by 77 percent in Baltimore during the 2010s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
On its website, Casa directed those who wanted to contribute to families of the victims to the Baltimore Civic Fund fundraiser page.
The D.C.-based League of United Latin American Citizens had raised $8,300 on its site by Saturday to “provide immediate financial assistance to the affected families, helping them navigate through these trying times with dignity.”
Brawner Builders, the Baltimore County company that employed the construction workers killed and injured in the bridge collapse, set up a GoFundMe with a goal of raising $300,000 for the workers’ families. By Saturday afternoon, a little over $45,000 had been raised.
Jeffrey Pritzker, the executive vice president of Brawner Builders, said the company employs about 200 people and has “substantial benefits” for all of them. He said Brawner Builders has met with the families of each victim and provided them prepaid cards, if necessary, “so they could get whatever they needed right now.”
Pritzker said the company will also continue to provide the men’s salaries to their families until “we get all the benefit stuff straightened out.”
“They are part of our family, and we really will be looking after them,” Pritzker said. He emphasized that the GoFundMe page for the victims and their families, which the company is promoting on its website, “in no way will offset or discount what Brawner will do for them.”
Additional fundraisers for the individual families, including the family of Suazo Sandoval, totaled more than $65,000.
