Before October 28--when Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica's southwest coast--our adopted town of Mearnsville was like a lot of rural villages in the Caribbean.

Dozens of hard-working and friendly multi-generational families occupied brightly colored small houses dotted up and down the hillside. Schoolkids, outfitted in matching uniforms, attended the Mearnsville Primary School. Residents hitched rides with one another to buy vegetables in the next town. The Mearnsville Methodist Church stood proudly on a prominent corner lush with trees overlooking the typically peaceful Bluefields Bay.

But when Melissa exploded over Jamaica's southwest coast, Mearnsville was caught in the center of the Category 5 storm as it hit land. It is now unlike anyplace you could imagine.

Everyone's roof is gone and most houses have been flattened. People lost everything.

The school is gone. The church is gone. Most of the trees are gone and those that are still standing were stripped of their bark by Melissa's force. The local road is impassable, with only the occasional small patch of asphalt remaining.

The entire community is desperate for assistance, and while we can't be there in these initial days to help serve their most immediate needs, we are driven to help them rebuild their lives as quickly as possible. And that's the reason for this ask.

With your help, we hope to distribute financial assistance to the people of Mearnsville to help them replace what they lost. No contribution is too small, and 100 percent of what we receive will go to the people in this literally hard-hit community.

We became connected to Mearnsville in 1990, when Steve & Linda Browne (Elise & Hali's parents and the Barkers' like-family friends) fulfilled their dream of living a simple life among Jamaicans by buying a house in this sleepy town. In the 35 years since, it's been our adopted community by extension. We watched their kids grow up and they saw ours do the same. We shared rides into town. We wept together when Steve and Linda passed away.

Now they need our help to rebuild their lives. Please help us help them if you are able.