Richie Adderley, a former employee of The Hamilton Center in Terre Haute is one of those residents. He worked with the center as part of their staff for many years.
“Six or seven years, and he’d done a good job here. He came here as line staff then he was promoted to a manager,” said Hamilton Center CEO Melvin L. Burks
Adderley first came to Indiana 33 years ago on a basketball scholarship at ISU.
He came here on a basketball scholarship, played basketball for two years and then he became almost deathly ill of some kind of virus and he had to have surgery,” Burks said.
In March of 2019, Adderley was deported back to the Bahamas.
“About a year ago, he was contacted saying that his country now had the ability to serve this type of illness that he has and that he would have to leave the country,” Burks said.
Then months later, Adderley and his family faced the major devastation from Hurricane Dorian.
“A lot of people lost their lives, a lot of people lost their homes. Their cars are underwater. So it’s very devastating to see a county that you love and grew up in. It’s really destroyed right now,” Adderley said.
Now, The Hamilton Center is doing what they can to help their long-time colleague and friend through monetary donations and sending items to the Bahamas.
“You’re just glad that you made an impact on people, that in times like this they step up and help you out. Words can’t describe how much I love everybody. Not only at Hamilton Center, but Indiana,” Adderley said.
The Hamilton Center said they are accepting checks, money orders and donations on Adderley’s behalf.
Anything given monetarily should be written out to Richie Adderley.
A GoFundMe has also been created for donations.
