Florida firefighter is bringing Christmas cheer to orphans in Colombia

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Max Morel-Sepulveda has dared to venture into the barrios of Colombia in recent years to help the needy with food, clothing and more.

A uniformed first responder for the city of Jacksonville for a decade, he made these trips after founding Reaching the Unreached, a nonprofit agency that specifically helps children and families in Latin America.

Its creation stems from his family’s roots in the Dominican Republic and his childhood growing up in a family of five in a 700-square-foot apartment in New York City. Even then he helped those in need.

“We come from a very poor family and moving to the United States, we worked very hard to give back,” he recalled. “We always remembered our roots and where we came from. From a very young age, my family would always put things together that we no longer used and it would go straight back to the Dominican Republic. …. It didn’t matter how much we had, how much people where we came from didn’t have.”

Now Morel-Sepulveda’s charity will embark Dec. 28 to the Abrazando Historias orphanage in Medellin, Colombia, to give food, toys, supplies and more to 165 children. But the mission needs money, which he hopes to raise Thursday night at a Beyond the Canopy fundraiser at The Jessie rooftop garden at 40 E. Adams St, in Jacksonville.

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“A lot of the kids that are there — you are talking about sexual abuse; you are talking about complete abandonment by their parents,” he said. “It is truly a location that meets the name that we have, being the unreached. It is not something that is spoken about here locally at all. And there’s a lot of places like this in the world, and we want to be able to touch — even if it is just a touch — and then create something sustainable.”

Morel-Sepulveda said his passion has always been to help people, and his life’s path began in 2009 with medical school in North Carolina. But it changed when he realized he “couldn’t do an office with four walls” and made a career change.

He put on the uniform in Jacksonville a decade ago. Then about eight years ago, he went to the Dominican Republic with his parents, and they decided to forgo tourist spots to give out food to those “who sometimes only eat one time a day” in the poorer areas.

“From there it progressed,” he said. “It dwindled a little bit because I became a father and family took root, and it took away from the time to do that.”

In late 2023 in South America with his brothers, they decided to help those in a slum in Cartagena instead of some planned tourist excursions. They bought and packaged food for delivery to the Barrio La Maria, a neighborhood that tourists should not go into, he said.

“We delivered food to about 50 families and bought 50 toys for the kids. We supplemented it with a few extras,” he said. “We ended up having about 100 kids show up that day, and we did not have enough toys for 100 kids at all. It was a tear-jerking moment for me — how can I fix this, how can I make it right?

Returning to Colombia

He said he promised those children he would return. The charity he calls Reaching the Unreached was created to help communities where “Red Cross doesn’t go to them, where nonprofits don’t go to them,” he said.

They built connections with those who could help them get aid to the people. Friends including former News4Jax reporter Vic Micolucci joined his nonprofit’s board in Jacksonville.

Reaching the Unreached is helping Jacksonville’s Hubbard House, which assists adults and children dealing with domestic abuse. He provided food before Thanksgiving to the Trinity Rescue Mission, with partnerships with local restaurants that have “that same kind of heart,” he said.

In September, he and a friend returned to the Barrio La Maria with food and more for 135 families — about 300 people — all bought in Colombia so their money went further.

“This was the promise to those kids that I would come back,” Morel-Sepulveda said. “We brought close to 200 dental supplies for them as well because hygiene is important. Toothbrushes — these kids went crazy for them. We purchased toys there as well, about 135. And every family received 55 pounds of food.”

The charity is now preparing for the holiday visit to the orphanage in Medellin, after they told him a “graphic” story about guerilla warfare violence that hit nearby villages and left families without food, he said. Helping these orphans will cost thousands of dollars, hence the need for Thursday’s fundraising party to succeed. Tickets are $65 per person. Details are here.

All proceeds from the fundraiser will support the children and foster families at the orphanage, said Micolucci, who is involved in the event.

“This lets people know who we are, what we do, what the mission is, and how a relatively small donation from them can make an incredibly large impact with families in South America,” said Micolucci, who now works for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Morel-Sepulveda added: “This would be something that would fund the orphanage and what is needed for us to bring them Christmas, because that is essentially what we are doing — we are bringing them Christmas,” he said.

A sustainable future

Morel-Sepulveda said he wants Reaching the Unreached to become “more sustainable” so it can help more families and children in need, as well as help people locally through education, food and other help.

“If we are going to be a cog, we want to be one of the biggest cogs,” he said. “We will start off with this orphanage, and I am thankful they reached out. If we can make something sustainable with this orphanage and get a sponsorship for each of these kids from our organization, that would be amazing. We are talking $20 month, which would go a long way for these kids.”

This story first appeared in Jacksonville Today .

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Florida firefighter is bringing Christmas cheer to orphans in Colombia

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