Wesley Chapel Preschool Named Collection Site for Colombia Earthquake Relief

WESLEY CHAPEL / PASCO COUNTY, FL — A small childcare center on County Line Road spent four days this month turning its classrooms into a Colombia Earthquake Relief collection site, after a deadly 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia earlier this month.

MiniArt Childcare Center opened its doors as a donation collection point, mobilizing teachers, families, volunteers and community members to gather, sort and pack supplies bound for the affected region.

Why the Drive Started

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck near San José del Palmar in Colombia's Chocó region on Aug. 10, causing widespread destruction across Chocó, Risaralda, Valle del Cauca and Caldas. Buildings collapsed and lives were lost as rescue teams searched the rubble for survivors in the days that followed.

For the Colombian community in the Tampa Bay area, the scale of the damage back home was hard to sit with from a distance — and MiniArt's staff decided to do something concrete about it.

How the Community Responded

Over four days, the center collected physical supplies for shipment to Colombia and raised more than $5,000 in monetary donations. Volunteers, including families with no direct connection to the school, showed up to help sort and pack.

María Mónica Aguirre, a Colombian volunteer in Tampa, said the drive gave people a way to help even while far from home. "Muy triste, se siente uno muy impotente estando acá, lejos de la familia, de la casa, de todo. Pero pues, acá estamos haciendo un esfuerzo para ayudar en lo que podamos" — roughly, that it's been heartbreaking to feel so powerless being far from family and home, but that the community is doing what it can from here.

What's Next

As the first boxes head to Colombia, MiniArt says it's already looking ahead to what more it can do — both for this crisis and whatever comes next.