Fund for woods workers nears $78,000

CARIBOU – A fund created to assist the families of 14 woods workers who died in the northern Maine woods last month is growing through the generosity of people from throughout the country.

Begun with the hope of providing the family of each man with $1,000, the fund has grown to more than five times that amount. On Friday, the fund at Peoples Heritage Bank at Caribou had grown to nearly $78,000.

The money will go to the families of the 14 men and also to the family of the only survivor of Maine’s worst motor vehicle accident.

The donations have come with cards of sympathy and hand-written notes. The organizer of the fund, Carla Picard of Caribou, has not taken the time to count the number of donations, but they number in the hundreds.

“I hope this will bring some relief to the victims’ families,” Peg Whittemore of Sudbury, Mass., wrote in her handwritten note. “Such a Tragedy!”

“I am deeply touched by the loss of so many young men, just the ages of my grandchildren,” Joyce Plant of Fort Fairfield wrote. “God knows each one by name.”

The two notes were picked from a boxful Picard has received since she started the fund Sept. 16, just four days after the accident.

Fourteen men from Honduras and Guatemala drowned when the van in which they were riding went off John’s Bridge, between Churchill and Eagle lakes. The vehicle plunged 20 feet off the bridge and sank in 15 feet of water.

The only survivor was Edilberto Morales-Luis, 24, of Guatemala who pushed out a window to escape from the vehicle. Morales-Luis flagged down the driver of a passing log truck for assistance after his escape.

The men all lived in Caribou while working as subcontractors for Seven Islands Land Co., cutting brush and trimming trees.

Those who died were Dionisio Funez Dias, Sebastian Garcia, Jose Santos, Euceda Alexi H. Alcantara, Pablo Euceda-Amaya, Juan Mundez, Sebastian Morales, Cecillo Morales, Juan Turuso, Delkin Paddia, Carlito Izaguirri, Jose S. Alvarado, Alcidez Chavez, and Alberto Sales.

Among the victims were three of Morales-Luis’ cousins and an uncle.

The accident remains under investigation.

Picard, 36, teaches English as a second language in the Caribou School Department. When she taught adult education classes, she said, many woods workers, mostly Spanish people, took her classes.

She lives across the hall from where several workers live in one of her father’s apartments.

Her relationship to the deceased migrant workers was a close one. One of the men had taught Picard’s 19-month-old daughter, Olivia, to say “hola,” which mean “hello” in Spanish. She said the men played with her daughter.

“They missed their families,” she said. “We considered them family,” she said Saturday. “We blended well.

“The fund-raising effort is going very well, very, very well,” she said, sitting at her kitchen table. “I never expected this response.

“I had hoped to be able to send each family $1,000,” she said while going through the scores of letters she has received. “It will be difficult for the families of these 14 men, and I just wanted to do something to help them.”

She hopes the money can assist the families in getting decent homes, or things they may need in their homes, or food.

“I’m sure it will be graciously received, and appreciated by the families,” she said.

Two large donations, $15,000 from Irving Woodlands and more than $13,000 from the Seven Islands Land Co., enlarged the fund tremendously two weeks ago.

Picard said the money from the funds would be transferred to the families, probably at the end of October. She said the transfers will be from bank to bank, from Caribou to institutions in Honduras and Guatemala.

She wants the banks to take care of the transfers, not wanting too many hands involved.

“Some people have expressed concerns because of the way things were done with some 9-11 donations [in New York],” she said. “With the banks doing this, I will feel comfortable.”

She has been communicating with David Hernandez-Caballero, an official in the Honduran Embassy in Washington, D.C. She said he has been helpful with suggestions, and she hopes to use his expertise in the transfer of money.

Contributions to the Migrant Relief Fund may be sent to Peoples Heritage Bank, P.O. Box 607, Caribou 04736.