Bar Harbor Community Steps Up for Jamaican Teammates With Multiple Opportunities to Help
Nov 06, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Acadia Shops.
BAR HARBOR—When Hurricane Melissa ripped off his home’s roof last week, Geraldine Baker’s son took his baby and raced out to find some place safe, anywhere safe, anywhere away from the wind, the rain, the rising water.
Desperately, the Jamaican man found shelter with his baby and they made it through the storm, and they were so grateful, but now, a week later, Geraldine Baker found out her cousin has lost his grandson.
Though they’ve survived, like many in Jamaica, every single one of Baker’s five children have heavily damaged homes without roofs.
Baker’s son, the same one with the baby, has had to walk five miles to get to find a supermarket that has food that isn’t soaked.
Mud and water has infiltrated so much of the heavily affected communities.
“It’s absolute devastation and she can’t stop crying. She is so worried,” said Lori Krupke, director of Kids’ Corner, where Baker has worked as a housekeeper— calling Baker a “devoted housekeeper” for the nonprofit school—for the last seven years.
Jamaica is a litany of devastation after the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa smashed into the country and stayed there for hours, bringing with her sustained winds of 185 mph, flooding of entire communities, damaging hospitals and taking out power and communications.
“She has been dedicated to us through the entire pandemic and after those muddy days of play outside. As her employer at Kids’ Corner it’s important for us to assure her that her Maine family will help her get through this traumatic experience. Community is something we hold near to our hearts and instill upon the children,” Krupke wrote.
WITHAM FAMILY HOTELS HURRICANE RELIEF FUND
Witham Family Hotels CEO David C. Witham and Human Resources Director Isabelle Legault have been meeting with the hotels’ over 200 impacted employees from both Jamaica and Haiti and finding the best ways to help their teammates.
“I’ve spent plenty of time crying this week sitting with people,” Witham said, Thursday.
”There’s been a lot of tears on both sides,” Legault said. “It’s been a very emotional couple week. They’ve also trusted us with what they’re going through. That’s a privilege for us.”
For Witham Family Hotels, the Withams created a hurricane relief fund for their employees. That fund is more than $100,000.
“We’ve had over 200 people apply,” Witham said.
The application is simple; the checks quickly go out, Legault said.
Some of the employees have lost everything; there is nothing left of their homes or their livestock. Some have had more minimal damage. Others suffered damage in between those extremes.
“We’ve had folks who’ve experienced the gamut,” Witham said.
Those on the eastern side of the country were less impacted, but the Witham teammates were quick to apply to the relief fund so that they could give it to their teammates who were not as lucky.
“People are so selfless,” Legault said.
The teammates from Jamaica were being very brave and very optimistic, Legault stressed. There’s a lot of blessings to be learned for those helping.
They are going to get through it, she stressed. They have faith. But there is strain in their faces. There is worry, too.
For many workers, they aren’t just supporting one household in Jamaica, but four.
Those who were still in Bar Harbor when the hurricane hit were desperate for news of their loved ones.
Some of the teammates were women with young children back in Jamaica. Those kids were being taken care of by grandparents and other family members while their moms spent months away from them to make money to support everyone. When the hurricane hit, communications went down.
“Some of them went five, six, seven days without knowing how their family was,” Witham said. “It was heartbreaking.”
Luckily, none of the teammates lost family members; many lost a lot though.
“It’s starting from scratch,” Witham said of those whose homes and towns were decimated and who travel to the United States to work. “They come here to buy walls or improve their roofs.”
They work toward those goals all season.
“People literally come here to buy 100 cinder blocks until they have enough to build a wall,” Witham said.
Now, that money earned all season will be quickly used up with just some of the repair efforts.
“Some just want to go home, but they know the best thing they can do is to stay here,” Witham said.
That’s because they now need to earn more money to support their family, to rebuild.
“What they are trying to process emotionally and psychologically is beyond what most people in the community could ever process,” he said.
SMALLER EFFORTS
One Bar Harbor worker’s wife is sleeping in a car while he tries to get back home.
Another’s home is flooded, roof gone.
Another has lost all her chickens, which feed her family.
At least 32 people were killed. Communities like Black River, which is on Jamaica’s southern coast lost its courthouse, its schools, its library, the entire downtown shopping district. Pretty much no building there is left whole. Black River is the capital of St. Elizabeth Parish where local business woman Therisa Barton of Therisa’s Team Tidy Cleaning Services grew up.
Jamaican Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness said hurricane damage is likely between $6 billion and $7 billion. Catastrophe modeler Cotality estimated that insured losses will be between $1 billion to $2.5 billion but total property damage will be between $5 billion to $9 billion.
For employers who work with Jamaican citizens who often come to Bar Harbor and other United States resort and tourism communities, it’s been hard to watch their friends and teammates suffer and it’s made them want to do something.
So a lot of them are.
They are creating GoFundMe’s, supply drives, paying for their employees’ belongings to get back to Jamaica, helping them rearrange interrupted flights, helping them track down their family members and reconnect, and more.
How seasonal workers from Jamaica return year after year become family is a theme amongst the Bar Harbor businesses that are trying to help.
“Our team from Jamaica are amazing. They have become family to us. They work so hard all season long to provide for multiple generations of their families,” said Constance Millinor of the Bar Harbor Manor. “And now they are returning home to devastation. Many will not have power until after the new year. They’ve lost their houses, gardens, fruit trees, and livestock. All the things they need to sustain themselves and their families. The things we take for granted on a daily basis are now like luxuries to them.”
And they will be rebuilding their homes, their families’ homes, themselves.
“Anything we can do to help them get the goods or finances they need is one less thing they have to worry about,” Millinor said. “The news has already moved on past this story, but this will affect these families for the next year.”
Employees from the Bar Harbor Manor flew back to Jamaica yesterday.
“They flew out today,” Millinor said November 5, “and are landing to complete uncertainty.”
Some are still trying to find ways to get back home. Many visa contracts ended last week, but those working in the United States are still legally in the country because of hardship clauses that the hurricane invoked. The cancellation of flights and the days-long closure of the airport in Jamaica added to a new decrease in flights due to the government shutdown in the United States has made it what one restaurant owner called “nearly impossible.”
Many business owners are helping their employees navigate that system.
“For years, our amazing Jamaican team have worked tirelessly to make others feel welcomed, both at the restaurant and in the community. Now it is our turn to show them the same kindness and care,” said Jessica DesVeaux, co-owner of the West Street Cafe, which has also set up a GoFundMe for its six employees.
STAY BAR HARBOR’S SUPPLY DRIVE AND POTLUCK SET FOR NOVEMBER 12
Stay Bar Harbor is organizing a supply drive and will pay for the shipping barrels of goods to Jamaica. Donations can be brought to the Pathmaker Hotel at 77 Cottage Street. They are looking for any non-perishable food, clothes, toiletries, or cash toward supplies.
“It’s literally everyone bring everything you can,” Stay Bar Harbor Operations Director Brandon Monroe said.
The supplies will be shipped in large blue barrels at approximately (and hopefully) $200 a piece, a cost that Stay Bar Harbor is covering.
Those barrels will be shipped via Orlando “Finger” Barrett, whose system has been used for shipping goods and food from the United States since 2000.
Barrett operates a blue barrel shipping company that ships to Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean. His white van and barrels are a weekly Bar Harbor sight during the summer.
“Sending money is great but for the people going home to nothing there’s not even stores to spend the money on,” Monroe said.
That’s why he’s encouraging people to bring everything that they can: old and donated clothes, actual supplies such as batteries, water filtration systems, water bottles.
“We’re sending it directly to communities that are effected,” he said.
They are also focusing on the smaller communities, the ones that are linked to people who work here, ones that aren’t big resort communities or cities. They have a contact person linked to a Bar Harbor worker in each place.
“We had 64 Jamaican employees out of 165 on payroll,” Monroe said. “A lot of them are going home to nothing.”
Stay Bar Harbor sponsors seven visa workers. Some have been coming for a decade. The rest of the employees are permanent residents or working for the company as second jobs.
“They have to fly home today to nothing. They come here to work to support their families. All of their money is going for rebuilding,” he said. That breaks his heart. “I hope we get so many barrels that people get mad at me for how much we have to spend.”
The organization will also have a Jamaican Night at the Ovens, November 12, from 2 to 6 p.m. featuring Jamaican food and all the proceeds will be donated to Greater Good Charities’ hurricane relief fund. Regular dinner service will be from 4-10. The Ovens is within the Pathmaker Hotel at 77 Cottage Street in Bar Harbor.
“This will be a good way to join together as a community to help each other during this hard time and help fund relief efforts in Jamaica,” Monroe said.
The company will also be offering 25% of all reservations toward the Greater Good Relief Program for stays until July 2, 2026.
SOPHIA BELL
Sophia Bell, an associate at Witham Hotels, was worried Thursday afternoon that she might be getting a little sick.
There’s no time for that.
“I can’t stop,” she said. “People need help.”
Bell has been coordinating an effort to ship back at least four barrels of goods to Jamaica.
“I’m doing canned items like corn beef, sausages, tuna. I’m doing toiletries. Diapers. We need everything,” she said.
Tarps help, Witham said. That’s because they can temporarily take the place of roofs.
“A lot of my family are there. Most of them are not affected,” Bell said.
Her cousin, however, sent pictures.
“Her roof is gone,” Bell said.
Bell’s cousin is staying at a neighbor’s, a neighbor who luckily still has a roof.
Phelecia Allen, a housing manager for Witham Hotels is from Black River, one of the hardest hit areas. She called at 4 a.m.
“She has 12 people in a small room. Food is hard to get there. Whenever they get food, it gets to the church,” Bell explained.
The church disperses it.
The Witham Family Hotels are helping with her efforts, supporting her and Pastor Rob Benson from the Bar Harbor Congregational Church as they hold support circles and have quiet spaces in the hotels for workers to have moments to themselves when they need them.
“Mr. Witham has been incredible to the staff here. I can’t say enough about that man. I’ve been at this company for 23 years and I would do 23 more,” Bell said.
Donations for the barrels can be placed in a bin at the Atlantic Oceanside lobby or at the Bar Harbor Congregational Church at 29 Mount Desert Street. Church donations can dropped off Tuesday 9-3, Friday 8:30-12; Saturday 10-11:30: Sunday mornings.
That need to help, the desire to get people who are currently struggling, food, clothes, shelter is overwhelming for many who are in Bar Harbor.
One woman who worked with Bell is in Jamaica now. She has stage four cancer.
“She lost everything. She’s still working and trying to help with repairs for Sandals Resort,” Bell said. “People need help. Even if it’s not right now: they are still going to need something one month, next month, next month.”
Tourist season starts soon in Jamaica.
The length of the rebuilding effort is what worries a lot of people. They’re afraid that the news cycle will move on, that people will stop worrying, remembering, taking care of each other.
PRIVATE SUPPORT
While some organizations and businesses are rallying support through events and drives, others are privately tracking and making sure each of their workers is okay.
Kristi Brooks Bond of FishMaine Restaurant Group shared a Venmo where people can donate to help their workers by writing “Jamaica” in the memo.
Born in the Parish of St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, and living in Trenton, Therisa Barton started a GoFundMe.
“Hurricane Melissa recently destroyed my community! Most of us are left roofless and all crops have been destroyed. We are just seeking help to put our roofs back on and start our crops over because we are the breadbasket parish for the island,” she wrote in a GoFundMe appeal.
Her community needs zinc, lumber, construction nails, fertilizers, and mattresses.
“We are grateful to be alive, but please help us get back on our feet because we are still struggling after almost a week ago!” the GoFundMe reads. “I understand that each country has its own situations, but sheltering and the basic materials for food are all we need to help ourselves.”
Eben Salvatore of Ocean Properties said of the area businesses, “I think everyone’s hopefully doing something.”
Ocean Properties owns hotels in Bar Harbor and beyond. Many of their couple hundred workers had already booked flights when the hurricane struck. Though the flights were cancelled, the airlines honored them. Some workers, though, had already gone back and were in the country when the hurricane hit.
“We’ve tracked out most everyone,” Salvatore said.
While most of their staff lives on Montego Bay, there was a lot of impact.
“Several houses are gone. Several boats and personal items are gone,” he said.
The company has a database of employee locations and needs.
“One person is tracking everyone’s travel,” Salvatore said. “Some stay in country. Some go home. Some go to Sugarloaf to work the season there.”
One of their Bar Harbor employees, who has worked here for 14 seasons, had a difficult choice that’s faced by many. His visa allows him to keep working at Sugarloaf resort for the season, but his parents’ home and lives were heavily impacted by the storm. He decided that he would help them more if he kept working here and sent them money and goods.
“It’s hard to know what they’re going through and go to a ski resort instead,” Salvatore said.
But there is a missing that happens, a longing to physically be there with the people you love, helping them, holding them, rebuilding with them.
Some of the workers from Ocean Properties in Bar Harbor returned home and checked a generator instead of their belongings. The hotel is shipping their belongings back instead.
“Most of them are just happy that no one got hurt (in their families),” Salvatore said. “They are happy to be home. They are still piecing it together. They do so much for us when they’re here, we will obviously do as much as we can.”
Fundraisers, shipping barrels, potlucks, relief funds, extra kindness, support circles, donations all matter and all help.
“I think of all those in the community and the business community that have developed relationships with the Jamaican community and a true understanding of what they give back to the community,” Witham said. “Part of Bar Harbor’s economy does not exist without the Jamaican community.”
Witham hopes people will come out and support the community that is also part of Bar Harbor’s in whatever way they can.
“You just want to keep doing more. One company in Bar Harbor Maine can’t rebuild Jamaica, but you kind of wish they could,” Witham said.
CHAMBER COLLATING EFFORTS
The Bar Harbor Chamber in an email to members said, “We are aware of several relief efforts being organized by businesses across the Bar Harbor and MDI community over the coming weeks. To help amplify these crucial efforts, we are shifting our communication schedule:
“Our usual Monday Happenings newsletter will be moved to Wednesday of next week. The Monday email blast will be entirely dedicated to highlighting ongoing and upcoming community relief efforts.
“If you or your business are hosting a relief effort, please send the details or a flyer to marketing@visitbarharbor.com by Sunday night so we can include it in the special Monday email.”
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Therisa Barton’s GoFundMe for St.Elizabeth
Donate to Geraldine Baker’s hurricane relief here.
Help the West Street Cafe’s Jamaican team here.
How Blue Barrels Bring U.S. Goods Back Home
Video Courtesy of Geraldine Baker
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