Volunteers gather at GEM to sort supplies for Colombia earthquake victims

Volunteers were at Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) in Doral for hours on Tuesday sorting through donated items for the victims of a powerful and deadly earthquake in western Colombia.

The city of Doral and GEM teamed up to help those in Colombia who were impacted, and news of the partnership spread like wildfire with elected officials from Florida City to Weston showing up to help.

"That was very shocking," GEM volunteer Alex Bianchi said. "I contact my family. Thanks God everybody's ok healthwise."

On Tuesday morning, Bianchi was at GEM volunteering.

"It's like history repeats itself," Bianchi said. "All the cases where they have, you know, babies and people dead, and people being, you know, recovered from the rubble is very, very touching. It's very, very sad."

Just a few weeks ago he was at GEM volunteering to help Venezuela after deadly back-to-back earthquakes.

"It's very different in Colombia than it was in Venezuela," Doral Mayor Christi Fraga said. "Their needs are different. The government is different. They are obviously ready and willing to work with us. We are currently in the process of understanding the specific list of needs they will have."

Fraga said that because they can buy items for less in Colombia, cash is key.

"We're asking for monetary contributions to GEM, and this will be earmarked directly for aid in Colombia, as the aid for Venezuela was earmarked for Venezuela," she continued.

GEM CEO Michael Capponi added that there are some critical donations aside from cash.

"We'd really like to focus this emergency run on collecting tents for the thousands and thousands of people, and blankets, and bedding, and all the things that you need, and emergency aid kits and so on," he said. "We have a list published on that. So, we will most likely start our cargo flights as soon as (Wednesday)."

Check out GEM's website for a complete list of needed supplies.