Stop by Coral Bay Garden Center during the month of December where owner Josephine Roller, above, is collecting money and donating a portion of the garden sales to a Philippines relief fund.
When Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines on November 8, it was 300 miles across and was recorded as one of the most intense tropical storms to ever make landfall anywhere.
As new information of the suffering, loss of life, and forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of people, continues to emerge, St. John farmer and owner of Coral Bay Garden Center Josephine Roller has launched a local fundraising campaign.
Roller, a native of the Philippines, is donating 20 percent of all garden sales during the month of December to the Filipino American Association of St. Thomas/St. John. She is also accepting outright donations of cash and checks for the organization.
While Roller’s family in the Philippines is safe, she has many friends, among countless villagers, who have not been heard from, she explained.
“All of the help is going to the main city, but there are so many small towns that you are not seeing footage from that were just washed away,” said Roller. “I am doing this to help out. We need to help.”
Coral Bay Garden Center, on King’s Hill Road, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information about donating to the Filipino American Association of St. Thomas/St. John, call Dora Tira at (917) 742-5411.
