American Federation of Teachers Joins with Entrepreneurs and Influencers to Lift Up Puerto Rico

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Andrew Feldman, andrew@feldmanstrategies.com, 781-820-6650 (c)

Proceeds from the campaign will benefit Operation Agua, an initiative launched by the AFT in conjunction with Operation Blessing; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico; the Hispanic Federation; the Seafarers International Union; and Tote Maritime, to deliver water filters to Puerto Rico so people can have safe drinking water.

WASHINGTON—Starting today, a new hashtag will appear prominently on the social media accounts of various celebrity influencers. Lift Up Puerto Rico (#LiftUpPR) represents a grass-roots social media campaign to raise awareness and funds for Operation Agua, an initiative delivering water filtration systems across Puerto Rico. Nearly two months after Hurricane Maria, millions of residents are still without access to safe drinking water.

The #LiftUpPR campaign was the brainchild of three entrepreneurs—Andrew Page and Anuj Patel, founders of Axle Workout, and Andrea Pizziconi, a social entrepreneur and musician who founded the Christie Company and Compositions for a Cause. 

“We were days away from opening a workout studio in San Juan, and suddenly everything was destroyed. With so many family ties to the island, I didn’t want to just sit by and do nothing. So we started asking around to see what we could do, which led us to Andrea, who helped us conceive of and strategize the campaign,” said Andrew Page.

“Many times people become overwhelmed by the magnitude of a crisis and they shut down, feeling powerless. The spirit of this campaign is to remind everyone, in a fun way, that relatively modest acts of kindness, when encouraged across thousands of people, can really make a huge difference,” said Andrea Pizziconi. “And being in the education sector, we knew there is no more credible partner to pull off such a logistical feat as this than the AFT, they are truly committed to ensuring these filters get to students, and families who need them most.”

The campaign is fueled by a diverse group of celebrity influencers ranging from professional athletes, supermodels and actors, to musicians, media personalities and politicians. So far, they include Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Maxwell (of Puerto Rican descent) as the honorary chair, actress Amber Valletta, actress and comedian Sasheer Zamata, actor and stand-up comedian John Leguizamo (of Puerto Rican descent), Victoria’s Secret Angel Lais Ribeiro, Lancôme spokesmodel Arlenis Sosa and Brooklyn Nets player Joe Harris.

“When I got the call to join in as a Puerto Rican artist, it took about two seconds to realize the impact I could make by encouraging my fan base to join and I was all in,” said Grammy Award-winning R&B artist Maxwell.

#LiftUpPR is a simple challenge that was designed to give each donor a fun way to join a movement to show solidarity with their fellow Americans on the island. The challenge is a social media campaign encouraging followers to take their own fun and creative photos “lifting up” others, post them, and then text “LIFT” to 69238 or follow a link in social media posts to make a donation to Operation Agua.

You can also make a donation on http://www.liftuppr.com. Each person who posts is encouraged to challenge three other people to do the same, which will spread the word and up the stakes on the creativity of the images. The best images will trend through reposts, sparking a light-hearted spirit of creative competition among goodhearted givers.

All proceeds from #LiftUpPR will benefit Operation Agua, a special initiative launched by the American Federation of Teachers, Operation Blessing, the Hispanic Federation, AFSCME, Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, Seafarers International Union and Tote Maritime immediately after AFT president Randi Weingarten visited the island and saw the devastation first-hand. What was clear is that access safe drinking water remains an urgent crisis to address in the short-term.

“As a union, we fight every day for a better life for working folks, and we deeply care about the people we represent and the communities we serve. That is why when we saw people drinking out of contaminated streams, when union nurse-volunteers were treating people with massive dehydration and others who were sick from unsafe water, when we heard people were drinking water from Superfund sites, we knew we had to take action,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “We launched Operation Agua to bring immediate relief to our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico, who have been without reliable access to safe drinking water for nearly two months. Water filters are already being delivered to schools and families so they have safe drinking water, and we are thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to have the support of Lift Up Puerto Rico to turbocharge this effort so we can help as many people as possible.”

Operation Agua has a goal of purchasing and distributing 100,000 individual water filtration systems for households and classrooms, and 50 large-capacity clean-water devices to a network of nonprofit organizations, union offices, schools and other community-based groups, to provide stable and reliable sources of safe water. A single $30 contribution provides an in-home purifier that requires no electricity and provides more than 10 gallons of safe water per day to a family.

All the featured celebrity influencers and partners involved in the #LiftUpPR campaign have donated their time and contributions to this initiative.

Keep up with the campaign on http://www.liftuppr.com to see new influencers who have joined and use #LiftUpPR to be part of the conversation.