Steven Gurowitz gives out gift cards after Hurricane Ian

Embrace Girls member packs supplies after Hurricane Ian

Mount Olive Baptist Church GoFundMe link

Steven Gurowitz taking three trailers of disaster relief supplies to Tampa on October 25

MIAMI, FL, UNITED STATES, October 18, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Steven Gurowitz will be in Tampa, Florida on October 25th doing disaster relief because of three hurricanes: Milton, Helene, and Andrew, which struck twenty-two years ago.

Gurowitz, president and CEO of luxury design firm Interior’s by Steven G, had just arrived in South Florida when Andrew, a category five maelstrom, ripped through the state in August,1992, killing 95 people and causing more than $27 billion dollars in damages.

It was the costliest and most destructive natural disaster to hit the state to that date.

Gurowitz remembers how the aftermath moved him to act.

“Your heart breaks when you see the devastation,” he said. “People without food and clothes, who have lost their homes. You see people that need everything.”

That’s why at 5 AM on Friday, October 25 the Florida Highway Patrol will escort Gurowitz and three tractor trailers packed with can goods, toiletries, clothing, cat and dog food, pallets of water, disposable diapers, disinfectant, Clorox, furniture and more from Florida’s east coast to Mount Olive Baptist Church in Tampa to help residents recovering from the double blast of Hurricanes Helene (September 26) and Milton (October 9.)

“The Florida Highway Patrol gets us there quickly and safely,” Gurowitz said.

The relief effort will include Chef Michelle Wright and her Soul Town Mobile food truck serving 300 hot meals to local residents – also sponsored by Gurowitz – as well as $5,000 worth of Walmart and Target gift cards Gurowitz’s supporters donated to be distributed to residents.

Mount Olive Church Pastor Reverend Keith Butler Sr. said the relief is much needed.

“Gas is hard to find so some supplies can’t get in because the trucks can’t refuel,” he said. “Grocery stores are empty and haven’t been replenished because the trucks can’t get in so folks can’t buy food and other necessities. People are living in homes with structural damage, homes with no electricity or water.”

Butler said his church is bringing in lawyers to consult with the many homeowners without flood insurance to analyze insurance policies. The community continues to pull together to help each other through the crisis, Butler noted.

Gurowitz, Butler said, “is phenomenal. He’s been helping people for years. He’s like a modern-day Robin Hood.”

Gurowitz has organized relief drives following natural disasters in Florida, in New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy (2012) and in Freeport, the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian (2019). He took a tractor trailer of bicycles, basketballs, and other toys to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (2005) “to help the children there have a good Christmas,” he said.

Interiors by Steven G. is a premier luxury interior design firm with over 85 employees headquartered in Pompano Beach, Fl. Its’ 110,000 square-foot showroom holds an array of quality interior design styles and Italian furniture lines. Clients have included high end restaurants, commercial offices, hotels, and private residential homes.

“I want to help because I have been so blessed, and giving back is great karma,” Gurowitz said.

Interiors by Steven G employees even canvassed the company warehouse and added furniture to the Tampa bound trailers, he said.

But Gurowitz notes he hasn’t done it alone, noting he has been contacted by many people who wanted to help. “A 92-year-old woman called who said she had things she wanted to donate if someone could pick them up,” he said. “We went.”

“Helping people after a natural disaster is one of Steven’s passions,” said Embrace Girls Foundation President and CEO Velma R. Lawrence. “The moment a storm is identified he starts agonizing over its path and planning how he can respond.”

The Embrace Girls Foundation Inc. is a non-profit that provides uplifting, girl-centric programming for hundreds of girls in several public and private elementary and middle schools in Miami/Dade and Broward counties. Gurowitz is a longtime Embrace Girls Foundation supporter and title sponsor of the organization’s wildly successful “Intimate Evening With” holiday benefit concerts series every year at the Casino at Dania Beach.

Embrace Girls have helped with Gurowitz’s relief efforts after Hurricane Ian hit Fort Myers in 2022 and again this year, packing hundreds of backpacks filled with toiletries and other personal essentials. “We’re here to support Steven in any way we can,” Lawrence said. “These are also teachable moments that help our girls embrace service and demonstrate compassion for people in need.”

Hurricane Andrew coincidentally impacted Chef Wright’s life. She was six years old when the storm hit and remembers standing in the doorway of her family’s Opa-locka Florida home and “watching the stuff fly by.”

Wright said she contacted World Central Kitchen, Chef Jose Andres’ 14-year-old disaster response initiative, and has been responding to disasters as part of that group’s efforts for the past four years. She has seen firsthand what a hearty meal of meat, rice and vegetables can mean for people unhoused by disaster.

“Sometimes people get the food and start crying because they have not had a hot meal in days,” she said.

The need is so great that Mount Olive Baptist Church has started a GoFundMe page to help affected residents. Please click the barcode link to contribute.

Velma Lawrence
The Embrace Girls Foundation
877-466-4769
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Interiors by Steven G delivers relief supplies after Hurricane Ian

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