CLEVELAND, Ohio – Puerto Rico is Keneth Lugo's homeland.  And even though he lives 18-hundred miles away in Cleveland, he can't forget the devastation

hurricane Maria left in the Caribbean two years ago.

“It was upsetting because I have a lot of family there and a lot them lost their houses so it was kinda sad but it was a great experience for me to go over there and help."

Last year, Keneth was one of 6 students and 4 teachers from the Global Studies program at Lincoln West High School who went to Puerto Rico 7 months after hurricane maria hit the island to deliver school supplies. 

They plan to go back in the fall with more supplies.

The youth project’s mission was to provide any type of assistance to the people in need, and members say it was a great learning experience.
 
“It was just terrible to see kids didn’t really have any food they didn’t have any houses or things like that and what we did we just went down there and brought supplies and we gave them medicine we went to a school and gave them all types of supplies they lost and it felt real good that I got make them happy and put a smile on their face and it felt real good to me and I know we did good," said HS Junior Rashon Pique.

The Lincoln West area is home to a large Latino community and many of the students are Hispanic, making this journey even more personal.

“We need so much more there are 283 schools that closed every since Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico so for us to see there’s still so much more to be given to those schools. It’s important for us to go back and this time we are calling on the entire city of Cleveland to help us out last year was something very small this year we want to go bigger and take as many supplies as we can and we want to serve 3 cities instead of just one,” said Rosa Cruz a teacher at Lincoln West.

If everything goes according to plan the youth project will be heading down to Puerto Rico in the first week of October with much-needed supplies.