UPDATED: Nov. 12, 2017 at 7:16 p.m.

Casey Perez’s voice was growing hoarse from yelling in the cold air.

With hands shoved in pockets, at times dancing around, Perez kept shouting “Puerto Rico disaster relief” as clusters of Orange fans streamed into the Carrier Dome, some quickly finishing off beers before entering security checkpoints and jostling to enter the venue’s pressurized revolving doors.

Nikolas Santana, rattling a small orange tambourine, held a bucket with the stenciled outline of Caribbean islands running down its side. It contained a few $1 bills.

“I’m very, very, very, very cold,” he said, a few minutes before kickoff in what would become Syracuse football’s 43-64 loss Saturday night to Wake Forest.

Perez, along with about 50 other Syracuse University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students, stood outside the Dome in below-freezing weather Saturday to collect donations as part of ongoing campus fundraising efforts to support aid operations in Puerto Rico and countries devastated by massive hurricanes Maria and Irma earlier this year.

Funds raised Saturday will also support relief operations in Mexico, after a deadly 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the central portion of the country and killed more than 350 people in mid-September.

Sam Ogozalek | Asst. News Editor

The group of students, who raised about $2,100 in total, met Saturday at about 1:30 p.m. in a small Physics Building room as the SU marching band’s drumline echoed around the Dome’s parking lot.

Vice President for Community Engagement Bea González and other university employees distributed grey winter hats to volunteers, most of whom have families directly affected by the storms or earthquake, González said.

Deborah Orieta, one of the Dome event’s main organizers, has family who lives just outside Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan.

“They’re doing OK. But they still don’t have power or internet,” Orieta said, a sophomore geography and food studies dual major, gearing up for the fundraiser with González. “They were very blessed … they were able to get water pretty quickly.”

A few minutes later, on the opposite side of the Dome, crowds of fans exited a Centro bus and hurried toward Gate A. Gabriella Mendieta was ready. She has family members living in the small city of Ponce on Puerto Rico’s southern coast.

Millions of Puerto Ricans were left without power weeks after Maria, a powerful Category 4 hurricane, slammed into the island on Sept. 20. Electricity is still being restored in spots. People have been left without any clean drinking water in what some officials say is a growing humanitarian crisis.

“The fact that people take the time, just a minute to pull out their wallet … I really appreciate it,” said Mendieta, a SUNY-ESF natural resources management major, after collecting a few dollars.

Mendieta has also helped out at other campus hurricane fundraisers, including bake sales and a salsa dance.

Sam Ogozalek | Asst. News Editor

Football fans dropped spare change into waiting buckets as Orieta and Andrew Perodeau, a freshman sport management major, danced at the top of a set of concrete steps by Gate L, asking for donations.

Santana, a sophomore sport management major, stood near Gate E. Almost 2,000 miles away, he has family living in the Dominican Republic. Infrastructure there was badly damaged by Hurricane Irma. Perez, a freshman natural resource management major, has family living in a small village where houses were destroyed by the Mexico earthquake.

“You’re dealing with people that don’t have any kind of electricity, food, water,” Santana said, in the Dome’s shadow. “I just want to help in any way I can.”

This post has been updated with additional reporting.

Published on November 11, 2017 at 10:48 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek