the music blared the latest pop hits, kids ran back and forth in the afternoon sun. The gathering had all the energy of a block party -- but it wasn't.
Sunday's donation drive in the Atlanta suburbs was for Puerto Rico, still struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Sofia Arroyo is Puerto Rican. News of the devastation to her home island moved her to action. Arroyo doesn't run a registered charity nor is she a social worker. In fact, she doesn't have any experience in this sort of thing at all. Normally she works a traditional 9-to-5 marketing job.
"I saw that there were lots of folks trying to raise supplies here and there in small groups," she told CNN. "So I thought, why not combine them all?"
That's how "Puerto Ricovery" was born.
The group is really not much more than Puerto Ricans living in Atlanta; they're restaurant owners, local business leaders and private individuals. The common denominator is their drive to help families back home.
Arroyo is one of the people arranging everything, from collecting and stockpiling supplies to transporting the goods.
"We have worked with U-Haul to store some of our donations," she explained, and "an anonymous commercial airline donated space on two flights for our supplies."
Arroyo said the group also "reached out to the office of the governor and first lady to make sure our supplies were going to be properly received and distributed."
"I didn't want our supplies to get stuck at the airport or the ports," she said.
