Cruise Passengers Turn Their Trip into Humanitarian Mission by Helping the Crew Prepare Meals for Hurricane Victims
A cruise liner full of passengers and crew members abandoned their planned 7-day vacation so they could help victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas.
The Celebrity Equinox left Fort Lauderdale, Florida with 3,000 guests last weekend with the intention of landing in Nassau at the end of their week-long voyage. After the storm hit the islands, however, they changed course for a different Bahamian island which had only been partially destroyed in the storm.
Rather than returning to Florida, the crew members and guests agreed to turn the trip into a humanitarian mission by preparing, packaging, and serving more than 10,000 sandwiches and water bottles to Bahamians affected by the storm. NBC News says that even the children aboard the vessel volunteered to help by making handmade cards for evacuees who might need some personal encouragement.
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Thankfully, the Celebrity Cruise guests are not the only ones offering emergency relief to the Bahamas—other cruise liners such as the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, The Walt Disney Company and Carnival Corporation have all used their fleets to deliver supplies to the islands and provide transportation for families seeking sanctuary.
Additionally, Unicef just announced that more than 1.5 tons of life-saving supplies arrived in Nassau this week.
“This first supply shipment of UNICEF humanitarian items was freighted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and includes over 400,000 water purification tablets, several 5,000-liter tanks for at least 2,000 people and 1,000 jerry cans,” says the organization.