CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — A team of five football players from Eastern Illinois University is taking the lead in promoting the adoption of shelter cats. They recently set an example by adopting two kittens from the Coles County Animal Shelter.

“We decided that if we’re going to get a pet, rescue should be the way to go,” said Whitten Weems, a tight end on the team.

Weems recounted their experience, saying the moment they arrived at the shelter, they felt an instant bond as if the animals chose them.

“We brought our roommate along,” Weems explained. “He was seated when Bonnie, one of the kittens, leapt into his lap and stayed there comfortably for the duration of our visit.”

They adopted a six-week-old kitten, but his roommate and defensive end Joel Jameson said one cat just wasn’t enough.

“So we ended up getting Megatron,” said Jameson. “So pretty self explanatory that it’s just a bunch of guys living in this house, because it’s a pretty unconventional naming system.”

Megatron is a three-month-old kitten, named after both the Transformers’ antagonist and NFL wide receiver Calvin Johnson. As far as personalities go, he’s on the rambunctious side.

“He’s a dude, he likes to run around, jump around,” said Weems. 

Bonnie’s a lot calmer, but just as curious.

“Cute ‘lil thing, all of like one pound,” said Jameson.

Since adopting the two of them Wednesday, the entire team has grown to love the two cats.

“You see a 325 pound o-lineman with these little kittens on him, and he just turns into a little boy,” said Jameson.

Now, some players are following suit. 

“Some of our teammates went down, I think, two days ago and got themselves a kitten,” Jameson said. “And more guys are going later to do it. So yeah, it’s kind of everybody’ jumping on board.”

Jameson is now encouraging others to find their own feline dynamic duo like Bonnie and….Megatron.

Weems and Jameson both said they enjoyed their experience at the Coles County Animal Shelter, adding cat adoption fees are only $25 through the month of July.

In the wake of the recent earthquakes that nearly destroyed her grandmother’s home in Caracas, Alessandra Izaguirre has been driven by a strong desire to assist Venezuela.

“After seeing the impact on my grandmother and so many others, I felt compelled to take action, even from where I am in the U.S.,” expressed the 18-year-old. In recent weeks, she has dedicated her time to preparing meals for volunteers at the Doral, Florida headquarters of the nonprofit organization Global Empowerment Mission (GEM).

Izaguirre is among thousands contributing to an expansive grassroots humanitarian operation coordinated by GEM. This effort is fueled by donations from across the United States and beyond, demonstrating remarkable momentum three weeks following the devastation.

Every day, hundreds of volunteers gather at GEM’s warehouses in Doral, a city where nearly half the population is of Venezuelan heritage. These volunteers diligently sort through donated items, carefully organizing them in response to current needs before shipping them out to Caracas on a daily basis.

Thanks to a system facilitated by the U.S. State Department, GEM provides a reliable channel for the Venezuelan diaspora and other concerned individuals to offer their support. It ensures that aid reaches those in need while addressing widespread fears of theft and corruption by Venezuelan authorities.

“Whatever we can get to the Venezuelan public is what counts,” said Izaguirre.

The effort also underscores the stunning dynamic shift between the U.S. and Venezuela since President Donald Trump ordered then-Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s capture in an early morning raid on Jan 3. With military personnel again on the ground, the U.S. has assumed a response role that would have been unimaginable before January, when Trump said the U.S. would “run” the country and seized control of its oil exports.

“This is a whole different animal,” said GEM founder and president Michael Capponi, who was denied entry to Venezuela while trying to deliver aid during the reign of Maduro, who long rejected humanitarian help, equating it to foreign intervention. “We land a private plane, it gets unloaded by U.S. soldiers, it goes in a truck we pay for and to a warehouse that we completely control. It doesn’t touch the hands of the Venezuelan government.”

GEM quickly activated a supply chain

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck 39 seconds apart on June 24, killing at least 4,500 people with thousands more still missing. They destroyed and damaged over 850 buildings, leaving 17,000 displaced and ravaging critical infrastructure providing electricity, clean water and sanitation.

GEM’s headquarters became a donation collection point almost immediately. Some donors were initially skeptical that aid could reach those who needed it without being stolen or misused by a notoriously corrupt government, Capponi said. After GEM made its first successful aid distribution, the movement grew bigger than he’d seen in decades of global response.

Companies like Goya, Walmart and Amazon contribute supplies while professional sports teams have donated funds. But much of the aid is still amassed from thousands of individuals’ contributions.

“They’re going to Walmart with their credit card, buying 15 cans of food and bringing it in a shopping bag,” said Capponi. “It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when it’s 2,000 people… it’s an enormous amount of aid.”

Lines to drop off aid at GEM have at times been so long police had to help manage traffic. Supplies arrive from across North America: Two brothers drove a U-Haul of goods from Canada. Another group arrived from Mexico. Trucks have rolled in from Nevada, Texas and California.

As many as 1,000 volunteers across three warehouses sort and pack. They fill pallets with essentials like diapers, and assemble individual care packages with enough sustenance and hygiene items to last two people about five days. They also tuck in notes of encouragement: “Te queremos Venezuela,” one reads. “We love you, Venezuela.”

GEM aims to deliver at least 100,000 care packages monthly for the next three-to-six months, while also addressing upcoming needs, like longer term housing.

Volunteers have taken vacations from work to put in hours at the warehouses, said Billy Richardson, director of U.S. logistics. Others arrive after work. “We almost have to kick them out at the end of the day,” Richardson said.

Mariela Vila showed up because she remembers how affected she was when Hurricane Maria pummeled her homeland of Puerto Rico in 2017. “The Latino community in general gathered together to help Puerto Rico, and that made me feel really well,” said Vila, 25, who has worked full-day shifts at GEM since the effort began. “So I felt the need to help Venezuela.”

U.S. assumes a complicated role

Nearly one million pounds (454,000 kilograms) of supplies have been deployed so far from GEM headquarters to its recently leased Caracas warehouses. GEM collaborates with local nonprofits and trusted community members to organize distributions in the hardest hit areas, often twice daily.

But it is the U.S. State Department that facilitates the shipments with the Venezuelan government, making it possible for GEM to operate independently, even getting help from the U.S. military. On Saturday, U.S. Marines landed an amphibious landing craft on a Venezuelan beach and unloaded GEM packages that were then passed to 2,000 people lined up for aid.

Partnerships with GEM and additional nonprofits allow the U.S. to tap into existing logistics and donation mechanisms, a State Department spokesperson told The Associated Press, adding that the effort with GEM leverages “the Venezuelan American diaspora and private partners who want to donate.”

Several other U.S.-based humanitarian groups told The Associated Press they also have been able to operate without interference from Venezuelan officials. Some depend on collaborations with established local nonprofits.

Despite the U.S. presence, some still question whether the Trump administration is doing enough to help Venezuela, especially since it controls billions of dollars in oil revenue.

“There are a lot of transparency questions that linger on the use of that fund in a moment in which Venezuelans really need that money to be used for the protection of Venezuelans,” said Laura Cristina Dib, Venezuela program director at the human rights organization Washington Office on Latin America.

John M. Barrett, U.S. charge d’affairs for Venezuela, told reporters last week that the interim government has been “fully compliant in terms of our requests to advance this massive humanitarian response” and that revenue from Venezuelan oil production, currently controlled by the US Treasury, is being made available for relief efforts.

Asked for further details, the State Department spokesperson said “State and Treasury are supporting the Venezuelan interim government’s budgetary operations, improving Venezuela’s liquidity and access to capital during the recovery,” adding that the U.S. has contributed over $386 million to earthquake response independent of the oil revenue.

Venezuela’s recovery is only beginning

In the coastal city of Maiquetía last week, Yoniel Reyes sat inside a tent, examining the contents of a GEM package he’d just received during an aid distribution, packed and sealed 1,300 miles away in Doral. There were instant meals, bottles of water, canned food, hydration powder and hygiene kits.

“I never imagined I would be receiving aid from the U.S.,” said Reyes. “We Venezuelans are thankful, very thankful.”

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Associated Press videojournalist Juan Pablo Arraez contributed to this report from Maiquetía, Venezuela.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.