Island to Island seeks to cultivate connection between P.E.I. and Bahamas

Luke Ignace was living in P.E.I. when Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas, but he has friends and family who lost everything back home.

A year later, Ignace is in the process of establishing a non-profit, named Island to Island, which aims to cultivate a connection between the two communities in a way that both can grow and learn from each other.

"When I came to P.E.I., it was just like a snowy reflection of the Bahamas, but on steroids — because you guys did it so well," he said.

"The systems here are so good, and as I lived and just looked around, I just constantly asked myself, like, you know, how can I share this?"

Island to Island is currently collecting donations to fill a shipping container that will be sent to the Bahamas. When Dorian hit the region it was a Category 5 Hurricane. When it eventually reached P.E.I. it was downgraded to a post-tropical storm. Ignace hopes to send the container in early December and that it will be the first of many.

"I started putting the burden on me. I started saying 'I want to do this. I want to do that, I want to do this,' and we're all Islanders. We all can help," he said.

"This is a gift. This container should have artifacts and items from people that says 'This is who we are on Prince Edward Island.'"

Both Islands impacted, but differently

Ignace said Island to Island is looking for a variety of items: from health and wellness supplies — like menstrual products and deodorant — to practical items like tools, or fun things like Christmas trinkets and evocations of P.E.I. 

"To all come together and to figure out, hey, how can we have individual, institution, incorporated relationships that help move things forward, that help disseminate information, that help with immigration, that help with funding, granting for scholarship, students who want to study and move forward," he said.

"That's what my heart is, and that's what Island to Island is as well.

"This is really important to me because I'm from the Caribbean. You know, I have loved ones who lost everything in the hurricane. Everything."

Ignace's nephews were caught in the middle of the storm and he said their entire house was destroyed. Their mother was sick at the time and later died, and their father was not a part of their life.

"It felt so surreal. I stepped out of my house right here on P.E.I. and the same storm was impacting this Island ... I saw the suffering in both places, although it was different in terms of like, you know, the intensity of it," he said.

"I'm just one individual. This pain goes for a variety of different people in the Caribbean. So that's where the pain comes from. That's why I'm doing this, and that's just how my heart has been affected, you know, through the pain of my family itself." 

He hopes that this act of Islanders helping fellow Islanders in need will forge lasting bonds between the two places.

"We're going to create community in the process if we can come together around crisis, right?" he said. 

"We can then really create systemic change in terms of how we're supporting the Caribbean and also how the Caribbean can synergistically support us."

Island to Island is accepting donations at their warehouse on Longworth Avenue in Charlottetown next to Pressed for Time from 4-8 p.m. from Tuesday to Thursday.

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