RACHEL RAVINA/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Michele Krempa, owner of Seachelle Designs and Beach Memories Jewelry in Berlin, features spe- cialty bracelets for $10 in her store on 303 N. Main St. in Berlin. Proceeds will benefit the victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas.

By Rachel Ravina, Staff Writer

(Sept. 12, 2019) The public can help victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas by purchasing a simple bracelet at Beach Memories Jewelry on Main Street in Berlin.

Michele Krempa, owner of Beach Memories Jewelry and Seachelle Designs, began offering the $10 bracelets last week as a way to donate to “Lend a Hand Bahamas,” an organization that helps Bahamian children as well as res- idents of the Dorian-battered communities.

“I think whenever we can help people in need, we need to,” she said.

“We felt that they would be a worthwhile charity to contribute to,” she said. “We’re donating all profits, so I’m just taking the cost out of the bracelet, and sending the rest to them, so we’re not making anything on this.”

The Category 5 storm battered the islands with wind speeds of up to 185 mph and hovered over portions of the Bahamas for about two days.

Krempa said the bracelets are blue, black and yellow, which reflect the colors of the Bahamian flag. There is also sand from Nassau inside the beads themselves.

Krempa said her company used this type of fundraiser for victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Maria.

“We have retailers all over the world, and when these people are in need, we’re certainly there to help them,” she said. “It’s just a necessary thing, you know, because they’d do it for us. I’m sure.”

“We put these out the other morning, two days ago, I had 11 of them on there, and they were sold before lunchtime,” she said last Friday.

Krempa said since she expects there will be a long road to recovery in the Bahamas, she said she has no plans to stop selling the bracelets.

“I think it’s going to be for a while, because this is going to be a very big project down there because it’s so bad,” Krempa said. “Just devastating. I mean it looks like they got hit by an H-bomb or something.”

Beach Memories Jewelry is on 106 N. Main St. and its web address is beach- memoriesjewelry.com. More information on the aid organization can be found at www.lendahandbahamas.org.