Local Denver startup kicks off donation drive for Venezuelan migrants
Hi! My name is Aimara Rodriguez and I'm a first-generation Latina working in tech.
I am the co-founder of Function f(x) Wellness, a wellness brand that was started alongside my brother Carlos, a fitness advocate and personal trainer with over a decade of experience. As brown people who enjoy climbing mountains and training for functionality, we were motivated by a shared mission of creating more access to the outdoors for communities of color and decreasing the knowledge gap about health and wellness in these communities. We're also extremely passionate about helping our community whereever we can, and since moving to Denver, CO, our commitmment to supporting our community has only grown.
Over the past few weeks, approximately 4,000 migrants from Venezuela have made their way to Denver. The situation in Venezuela has become untenable for many families with ongoing political and humanitarian crises. Right now, there are only short-term options for emergency shelters, and supplies are urgently needed to support the impacted families. At a local level, Denver residents and organizations are all asking ”how can I help?” No matter what your political views are as an individual or company, our main goal is to help these families and activate our communities to come together.
My brother Carlos and I, through our new company Function Wellness, in partnership with the Latinas in Tech - Denver local chapter, are partnering together to host a donation drive to help the families from Venezuela that have arrived in Denver over the past few weeks who are in desperate need of essential supplies such as clothing, toiletries, and children's items.
There are two ways to support the donation drive:
1. By visiting the Amazon wishlist we’ve created to donate requested supplies to the impacted families. This method is open to all and you do not have to be located in Denver to donate. At the end of the donation drive, our volunteer team will be delivering all of the items directly to the impacted families in the Denver metro area through a collaboration with Denver Parks & Recreation.
2. We will be doing a designated physical drop-off day for local Denver residents on Friday, January 20th at four locations across the Denver metro area where members of our volunteer team will be stationed from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The details of the four locations are updated on our website. If you have any inquiries about physical donations or would like to schedule a pick-up, please contact us at hello@functionxwellness.com.
To learn more about how to get involved, please visit:
- English: https://lnkd.in/g3nRwZFx
- Spanish: https://lnkd.in/gDMc2RJa
A big thank you to these local organizations for their support: Social Venture Partners Denver, Denver Startup Week, Denver Angels, SOAR - Seeing Our Adolescents Rise, Colorado Smart Cities Alliance, Downtown Denver Partnership, Smart Futures Lab
Also, thank you so much to Nikki Wentling of the Denver Business Journal for covering this. Check out the article here: https://lnkd.in/g_DqmvSD
