Kenny Chesney’s Love for Love City is His ONLY Official Charity
After Hurricanes Irma and Maria’s Severe Impact on the USVI/BVI
Virgin Islands Relief Fund Identifying Local Needs + Responding
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. — When Kenny Chesney went to the Virgin Islands 20 years ago, he
had no idea the Saints would become an integral part of his life. But
over the last two decades, the songwriter has lived as a local – and
made many friends across the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. In the
spirit of local community, Chesney began Love for Love City to identify
pressing local needs, create opportunities for companies to donate
supplies, food, physical goods or transport and people to contribute to
the ongoing rebuilding of the islands.
“Getting
supplies in is hard. Finding places for workers to stay is even harder
now that Hurricane Maria has done so much damage to St. Croix,” Chesney
says. “Because it’s so hard to get even the basic supplies in, let alone
the news media, people really aren’t seeing how devastating these
hurricanes have been.”
Chesney
personally has sent planeloads of food, water, medical supplies,
generators, tools, clothes, tarps and camping equipment. He has also
taken many people and their pets off the islands to the mainland in an
attempt to lessen the strain on supplies across the various islands.
Currently
vetting various local and national relief organizations, Love for Love
City seeks to insure the money and materials generated get to the people
who truly need them. “With all the crisis across the country, it’s so
easy to feel overwhelmed, or to respond to the first person who reaches
out. In St. John and the other surrounding islands, there is so much
more to the needs than just materials. We have to get the equipment
necessary there… We need to figure out how to shelter workers rebuilding
the community… We have to understand, too, that entire communities have
been wiped out.
“Food?
Water? Medical care? These things are all in an emergency state. That’s
where we have to start… and it’s going to take time, careful thought
and making some good decisions. But the number of meetings, calls and
conferences I’ve been in or on over the last several days? It’s an
education, but it’s also part of doing this is in a way that will
matter. Right now, making sure the people in the U.S. and British Virgin
Islands aren’t forgotten in all the other equally troubling stories is
critical.”
Chesney
cautions people who wish to help to be careful of all charities
claiming to be affiliated with or through his name, or any of the
entities he is affiliated with. Love for Love City is the sole charity
Chesney is working through – and all resources collected will be
distributed through Love for Love City after proper evaluation.
Love for Love City:
The fund will support and give to local and national 501(c)3 charities
aligned with our mission of getting relief where it’s needed,
immediately and ongoing in the Virgin Islands. Love for Love City
Foundation is a fund of Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc., a
501(c)3 publicly supported charity registered with the IRS.
Contributions can be made at http://bit.ly/LoveforLoveCity.