5 Ways to continue Helping St. John in our Hurricane Recovery and Beyond
It’s been just about ten months since Hurricane Irma hit St. John and the island has truly come leaps and bounds since then. The streets in Cruz Bay are currently filled with tourists and locals alike, all enjoying the festivities of our Carnival. Nightly there is live music and tourists fill seats at the popular restaurants, overall, giving town a pretty normal feel these days.
However there are still ways to help the island beyond visiting and volunteering. Here are 5 easy ways to continue helping St. John recover!
Protect our Reefs and wear reef safe sunscreen!
Some of our reefs suffered damaged from the storms in September and are working hard to regenerate. Those delicate little juvenile corals need all the help they can get from us. The best thing you can do is skip the chemical laden sunscreen and opt for a brand that is TRULY reef safe, that means reading labels, wearing a swim shirt in lieu of sunscreen and doing your research before investing in a sunscreen brand! Check out this blog post we wrote a few weeks back with more information!
Support Small Businesses on Saint John!
One of the reasons that St. John is so special to so many people is because we don’t have huge chain stores or big businesses overtaking the island. With the majority of the island being national park, there just isn’t room for huge expansion and many of the small businesses have struggled to stay in business this year and thoroughly appreciate your business.
So if you can; eat, drink, shop, boat, and support the local businesses on St. John on your next visit.
Minimize your footprint when visiting!
On a small island, trash, plastic, and debris pile up quickly. It’s one of the struggles of island life and with so many visitors to this beautiful island, it’s a huge help when they are conscious of their impact on the island. That means; don’t use plastic straws, re-use plastic bags, bottles, and cups, pick up trash on the beaches and in town, and just overall take care to make sure your visit is as minimal on our delicate environment as possible! We love our visitors and we love our island, so working together to minimize the footprint that humans make can ensure we can continue in the same way for years to come.
Travel, Travel, Travel!
You all know we’ve been saying this since December of last year, but we definitely need our tourists! So rent villas, cars, and boats, and get ready to hit the beach. It’s been a really incredible year and some of our visitors have said it’s been their best year yet, (Think: no crowds, parking at the beaches, no reservations needed at the restaurants, and more!) You are our biggest industry and we are so thankful for the people who have visited and will continue to do so; it keeps us going and keeps our island functioning!
Rent Local!
We love our St. Thomas friends and we thoroughly enjoy time spent over there taking advantage of the amenities St. John doesn’t have to offer, but we do have to add this one in. Please try to rent your rental cars from St. John. There are great rentals on St. Thomas and we know how nice it is to get in the car and drive straight over to the car barge from the airport, BUT, we currently only have two barges running and the island is rebuilding at a rapid rate so we need to be able to get dump trucks, supply trucks, maintenance trucks, and other big vehicles on the barges going both ways every single day, multiple times per day. Not only do St. Thomas rental cars clog the ferry, but we have SO MANY car rental companies on St. John and they need the business! The rates are comparable and you’ll be doing your small part to help us get our supplies over here and you’ll be freeing up space for locals who have to go to St. Thomas for doctor’s appointments, Home Depot runs to repair their damaged property and more!