The Tribune

AMERICAN ex pats in Exuma have raised almost $20,000 towards rebuilding the Straw Market in George Town that was razed by fire last week.

Adam Stenftenagel of Boulder, Colorado, an Exuma resident, told a town meeting on Monday that the funds will go to building a facility similar to the Straw Market in New Providence, equipped with appropriate common amenities, including indoor public bathrooms.

At a meeting of the Exuma Foundation at the Kettel Centre Mr Stenftenagel said: “I’ve been coming here for 15 years and I absolutely love it here. I was there when we saw the first flames coming out of the Straw Market right at the very beginning. We tried to do what we could to put it out with garden hoses from the two Ts (Two Turtles Hotel and Bar) and I came down with Dan, who is one of the managers at the Two Ts and worked hard to try to put it out, but that didn’t work.

“It was a crazy night, and after we kind of watched everything get put out at the end of the night, I went back home and was like ‘what do we do?’ After talking to some friends back home, I was like ‘Oh, well why don’t I set up a donation page? It’s really easy to do and I put it together that night and we got our first donations early that morning. And within a day, we had $10,000 raised in less than 24 hours. It was pretty spectacular.”

Mr Stenftenagel said they started spreading the word via email to all the local ex-pats and all the people he knew in that way, as well as the Bahamians he knew on Facebook and through social media.

“So today right now there’s $19,600 in the account that has already been donated, and that just keeps going up. I’ll continue my efforts to do so,” said Mr Stenftenagel. “It’s really all over. We’ve have $20 donations and we’ve had $1,000 donations. It’s been a wide variety and there’s a lot of folks that just love the Straw Market that have donated. I really don’t know how many were actual Bahamians versus the ex-pats, visitors, and tourists, but I know there has been over 160 individual donors that have given close to $20,000.”

Mr Stenftenagel said the donors had left amazing comments on the donation page about how their individual visit to Exuma inspired them to want to contribute to rebuilding one of the main economic pillars of the George Town community.

“I’m working on cards to the website youcaring.com/strawmarketfire or just go to Facebook.com/Exumastrawmarketfire. There’s a page on Facebook with links to the donation pages. You can see all the comments and we’re close to 500 likes on Facebook and there has been over 1,000 people that have seen the donation page now. It’s pretty cool for just a few days,” said Mr Stenftenagel.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works, Philip “Brave” Davis told the meeting he had had an opportunity to speak with all the straw vendors to tell them he had ties to the straw market. Mr Davis reflected that his aunt, Lillian McKenzie, from Stuart Manor, used to work there as a straw vendor. Mr Davis reassured straw vendors that the government intends to quickly rebuild and replace the marketplace.

He said the fire was a stark “reminder to all of us that we are indeed our brother’s keeper because what happens to one of us, may one day happen to me or you. And so it is on April 15, when I got the news of this fire of the historic straw venue in George Town, I was equally moved as those of you who were directly affected. Many of us can trace our evolution back to the straw industry back in the day.”

Sandals Resorts International has donated $10,000 and Straw Market vendors in Nassau have given goods and funds to the cause.