ST. LOUIS • A short drive from where Yadier Molina grew up in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, and into the Mavilla neighborhood, the Cardinals catcher stood atop a blacktop road surrounded by stripped-clean and snapped trees and covered with a message that gave words to the reason he came home.
“AYUDA,” it listed. “AGUA. ALIMENTO.”
Translated it asked for “help,” “water,” and “food.”
Written atop, “SOS.”
No translation needed.
The road and the request scrawled along it are clear in a photo that Molina posted last week on his Instagram page. In it, Molina, wearing a St. Louis Blues T-shirt, stands beside residents as part of his visit to Puerto Rico to do exactly what was asked – bring food, water, and help to an area still recovering from the damage of Hurricane Maria.
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Molina, along with his older brother Jose and wife Wanda, visited the area around Vega Alta in the past week and went door to door with supplies, according to a description provided by Evelyn Guadalupe, a spokesman for Molina’s Fundacion 4.
Molina traveled the area without journalists so he could knock on the doors and spend time with neighbors, many of whom are still without power and some of whom were already in what he has described as an “underprivileged” area.
He chronicled the visits on Instagram and in photos provided by his foundation. In them, Molina is delivering water, dry goods, and many embraces. In one photo, Molina is clutching hands with a Vega Alta resident and in the background stands bronze statues of him, his two brothers and their father, Benjamin. All three of Benjamin's sons played in the majors. The statues were placed in Barrio Espinoza in Dorado, Puerto Rico, to celebrate the family. Molina’s foundation delivered trucks loaded with ice as well as water and other provisions.
In a video Molina shared, palettes were stacked with water bottles 12 deep and six bottles high.
A month after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, many of the 3.4 million U.S. citizens living there still lack power, clean water, and basic supplies. Communication is limited or nonexistent across the island. Reports from this past weekend said 1.2 million residents do not have potable water, and Puerto Rico’s electric power authority said 85 percent of the island does not have power. Scores of Americans remain unaccounted for and this past weekend the death toll rose, nearing 50.
The island, its crippled infrastructure, and its recovery has become a quagmire for President Trump, who has used Twitter to engage in spats with officials or question the extent of help the federal government can provide. He wrote on Twitter that the grid and infrastructure was a “disaster” before the hurricane and that federal relief could not go on “forever.” This past week, Congress passed relief funding.
In the closing days of the Cardinals’ season, as he recovered from post-concussion symptoms, Molina declined to wade into the politics of Puerto Rico’s recovery.
He stressed that his role should be “helping as many people as possible.”
“I am going to go to help,” he said.
Two days after the Cardinals’ season ended, Molina did that. After stopping in Florida to help organize goods, Molina and his wife traveled to Puerto Rico to handle the deliveries in person. According to Guadalupe’s description, the foundation had five trucks “loaded with provisions.” Shortly after Hurricane Maria and its eye wall passed near Molina’s hometown of Vega Alta, the catcher starter a GoFundMe account that raised more than $155,000. Molina said that money would go to purchase the supplies brought to the towns and neighborhoods around Vega Alta.
Before leaving St. Louis, Molina said he would add to the fund with a personal donation. He did not disclose how much. Several teammates, including Kolten Wong and Tommy Pham, also provided financial support for Molina’s efforts.
Molina’s group visited at least four towns during the humanitarian trip, which ended Sunday.
Two of the towns have welcomed Molina before as he makes annual trips in with turkeys that he gives families for Thanksgiving dinner as part of Fundacion 4’s work. Yadier and Wanda Molina founded their charitable organization in 2010.
He has also hosted Christmas parties in the neighborhoods.
In December, Molina will return to Puerto Rico to host the second annual Yadier Molina Home Run Derby & Celebrity Softball Game. The event will be at San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium, and Molina’s foundation announced this week that proceeds will benefit organizations that are helping residents recover from Hurricane Maria damage.
In the “SOS” photo, which Molina shared on Instagram on Thursday, the Cardinals catcher shares the frame with as many nine children and friends who traveled with him from home to home to deliver items. The popular social media site allows people to tap a heart icon if they “like” the photo, and as of Tuesday morning more than 9,950 people had.
One was Carlos Beltran.
“I have friends and family over there and things are not getting better,” Beltran told the New York Post. The former Cardinals outfielder is currently playing for Houston in the American League championship series while also watching and helping his homeland’s recovery. “For the first week and a half, I couldn’t sleep. I was going crazy. I didn’t hear from my family for a week. Everyone is in the same boat, all different classes. You can have money, but if you don’t have food to buy, then you don’t have anything. The situation is critical.
“If they want it to disappear,” Beltran told the paper, “then Puerto Rico is going to disappear.”
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