Jackets Without Borders Returns to Puerto Rico

Click HERE to contribute to Jackets Without Borders

THE FLATS – Jackets Without Borders, Georgia Tech athletics’ award-winning international service trip, returns to Puerto Rico this week to assist with continuing hurricane rehabilitation efforts.

Twenty Georgia Tech student-athletes and four GT athletics staff members will travel to Villa Del Rio, Puerto Rico on Sunday, an area that was devastated by Hurricane Maria in September 2017. Georgia Tech’s 2018 Jackets Without Borders trip was also to Villa Del Rio to assist with rebuilding homes that were damaged by the category five storm, which is regarded as the worst natural disaster to ever affect Puerto Rico.

Last month, the Jackets Without Borders program received the 2018-19 Atlantic Coast Conference Game Changers Award for community service.

Jackets Without Borders was established in 2017 by Georgia Tech director of athletics Todd Stansbury, who envisioned an opportunity to build partnerships with communities outside of Atlanta, extend the reach of GT athletics and promote meaningful change in the world.

In its inaugural trip, Jackets Without Borders traveled to Cartago, Costa Rica in 2017, where participants built a multi-use sports court for a K-12 school.

This year’s participants include football student-athletes Djimon Brooks, Charlie Clark, Carson Fletcher, Hamp Gibbs, Keegan Hemingway, Jahaziel Lee and Wesley Wells, swimming and diving’s Kelsey Dekshenieks, Paige Gohr, Morgan Johnson, Macleary Moran and Aidan Pastel, volleyball’s Gabi Dolan and Lexi Dorn, women’s basketball’s Lotta-Maj Lantinen and Christina Darland, Cat Gross, Madison Hicks, Madison Moitoso and Jackson Wydra from the spirit program, as well as Georgia Tech athletics staff members Eric Avila (sports medicine), Brad Malone (ideation and branding), Maureen Tremblay (Total Person Program) and Tyler Wheeler (ideation and branding).

Each participant is responsible for raising $2,000, which goes towards the approximate $60,000 cost of the trip, which includes flights, lodging, meals and supplies for building efforts. Those wishing to contribute can click HERE.

This year’s trip runs from Sunday, May 5-Sunday, May 12.

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