South Elgin man raises funds for Puerto Rico, helps with relief efforts

Thad Van Hiel believes in charitable giving, but does not like clicking on a website to do so. Instead, he likes to know exactly who his money goes to and what they do with it.

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico Sept. 20, Van Hiel, of South Elgin, set in motion the very next day, approaching his bosses at Byline Bank in Schaumburg about fundraising for the hurricane's victims.

The positive response was immediate, said Van Hiel, whose wife is a native of Puerto Rico.

“We have a pretty decent (sized) Puerto Rican community at work,” he said. “Everyone jumped on board.”

Van Hiel, the bank's vice president of special assets, organized several lunch fundraisers with food donated by local businesses. All proceeds, or about $12,000, went to a medical relief effort organized by a partnership among New Life Covenant Church, Norwegian American Hospital and The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, all in Chicago, he said.

And because he wanted to see how the money would be used, Van Hiel said, he also got himself a plane ticket to Puerto Rico, where he spent a day watching the medical team in action, he said.

Van Hiel tagged along as team members administered physical checkups to residents in their homes and at local churches in Toa Baja, west of the capital San Juan. He was stunned at the devastation that persisted nearly two months after the hurricane, he said.

“I was constantly shocked by it,” he said. “I saw a lady living in a tent in her house. FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) had dropped off a tarp for her, but that's it. The house was completely filled with mud on the first floor, like a foot deep. Every other house in that neighborhood, they lost everything.”

He also encountered amazing examples of human resilience, he said. One man who'd lost everything was living out of his car, looking for work to provide for his family, all the while volunteering to help however he could, Van Hiel said.

While on the island, Van Hiel ended up spending another $1,000 for supplies such as personal hygiene items and blood glucose test strips, he said.

“I don't have medical training, so that's all I could do to help,” he said. “We were the first people there (to help) for a lot of these communities.”

The work is not over for Van Hiel, who said he's already trying to figure out how to further help the people of Puerto Rico.

“I think it's going to be a tough Christmas,” he said. “You already have areas in Puerto Rico where kids don't have a ball or a bike, and this is just going to compound it.”