Wells Fargo Supports Disaster Recovery With $2 million Grant to Team Rubicon

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 19, 2024--

The Wells Fargo Foundation is donating $2 million to Team Rubicon over the next two years to support lasting disaster relief, including most recently in the hard-hit Southeastern United States. This funding will enable thousands of volunteers, including military veterans, first responders and civilians to deploy quickly and for extended periods of time, providing critical support to communities as they rebuild.

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The veteran‑led humanitarian organization Team Rubicon serves communities impacted before, during, and after disasters and crises. Since inception in 2010, Team Rubicon says it has launched over 1,200 operations across the globe. So far in 2024 alone, the organization has served over 2.9 million individuals.

Most recently, in Western North Carolina, Team Rubicon Greyshirt volunteers are mucking out more than 150 rooms at the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry’s Veterans Restoration Quarters, a converted motel providing housing for 250 vulnerable veterans. Volunteers are clearing debris from this facility, using tools from shovels to heavy equipment, allowing the facility to be rebuilt.

“Wells Fargo salutes Team Rubicon’s year-round disaster resiliency, relief and recovery work,” said Anna Bard, head of disaster relief philanthropy, employee giving and volunteerism at Wells Fargo. “Team Rubicon arrives in the moments after a disaster, taking on some of the hardest, dirtiest jobs. They work hand-in-hand with local agencies, going where they’re most needed and staying to help communities heal and rebuild. The level of skill and dedication this veteran-led organization brings to a challenge is inspiring, even drawing in our own employees who volunteer alongside them.”

The $2 million in grant funding from Wells Fargo will go towards Team Rubicon’s Ready Reserve Fund. Team Rubicon leans into its Ready Reserve Fund to prepare for disasters and to conduct trainings for Greyshirts, its cadre of fearless volunteers.

“In times of crisis, our Greyshirts are the backbone of our response efforts, providing crucial support to communities,” said Art delaCruz, CEO of Team Rubicon. “The Ready Reserve Fund allows us to be ready instantly. With forward funding from partners like Wells Fargo, we pre-stage resources and assist survivors within hours of hurricanes like Helene and Milton. The fund also enables us to train before the storms, ensuring we can deploy skilled volunteers.”

In 2023, Wells Fargo announced $1.7 million in support of Team Rubicon, including support for its Team Rubicon TRades Academy designed to address the need for credentialed contractors in communities nationwide, especially after natural disasters. This effort is aimed at offering veterans a meaningful path to employment while also helping people repair one of their most valuable assets – their home.

For more information on Team Rubicon, or to join the mission, visit TeamRubiconUSA.org.

About Team Rubicon

Team Rubicon is a veteran led humanitarian organization that serves global communities before, during, and after disasters and crises. Founded following the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the organization has grown to more than 180,000 volunteers across the United States and has launched more than 1,200 operations domestically and internationally. To drive equity across disaster and humanitarian services, Team Rubicon focuses on three areas of impact: disaster services – from mitigation to immediate response to recovery; rebuild services – maintaining the fabric of communities through resilient building methods; and international services – providing emergent and surge medical services, WASH, and disaster risk reduction. The organization is featured in the Roku original series titled “Team Rubicon,” which highlights the work of Greyshirt volunteers assisting communities across the country. Go to http://www.teamrubiconusa.org for more information.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets. We provide a diversified set of banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth & Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 34 on Fortune’s 2024 rankings of America’s largest corporations. In the communities we serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a low-carbon economy. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

Additional information may be found at www.wellsfargo.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wellsfargo

News Release Category: WF-PESG

New grant from Wells Fargo will help veteran-led Team Rubicon continue to clear debris and help communities recover from natural disasters, including active efforts underway in Western North Carolina and Florida. (Photo: Wells Fargo)

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia nursing student Laken Riley texted and called her mom as she headed out for a run to see whether she had time to chat — but then didn't respond to her mother's calls or increasingly frantic text messages.

Riley called her mother at 9:03 a.m. on Feb. 22, and by the time her mother called back about 20 minutes later, the student had encountered Jose Ibarra on a wooded running trail at the University of Georgia, according to trial testimony. Prosecutors said Ibarra killed Riley after a struggle, and data from Riley's smartwatch shows her heart stopped beating at 9:28 a.m.

After Riley failed to answer the phone, her mother, Allyson Phillips, texted her several times, casually at first but then with increasing concern, according to data pulled from Riley's phone.

At 9:37 a.m., her mother texted, “Call me when you can.” Phillips called twice, and when her calls went unanswered, she texted her daughter at 9:58 a.m., “You’re making me nervous not answering while you’re out running. Are you OK?" Phillips texted again at 11:47 a.m., writing, “Please call me. I’m worried sick about you.” She and other family members continued to call Riley.

Phillips cried in court as the text messages were read aloud by Georgia police Sgt. Sophie Raboud, who examined data from Riley's phone. Raboud also testified about video from surveillance cameras near the wooded trail, and Phillips and some other family members and friends cried as video played showing Riley running on the trail the morning of her death.

Ibarra, 26, is charged with murder and other crimes in Riley’s death in February, and his trial began Friday. He waived his right to a jury trial, meaning the case will be decided alone by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard. The case could go to the judge by the end of Tuesday.

The killing added fuel to the national debate over immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta.

Surveillance video also showed a man who prosecutors say is Ibarra walking around an apartment complex where a female graduate student said someone tried to get into her apartment and peered in the window early the day Riley was killed. The man is seen going up to the door of that apartment six times over a period of roughly an hour, twice opening the outer screen door, Raboud testified.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Lucas Breyer testified about reviewing the body camera video from the officer who found Riley's body in the woods. He testified that her clothes were “heavily manipulated,” describing the waistband of her running tights as having been pulled down some and her jacket, shirt and sports bra having been pulled way up.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross said during her opening statement that Ibarra had gone out “hunting for females” that morning in February and that he killed Riley after a struggle when she “refused to be his rape victim.” Law enforcement officers have testified there was no evidence that Riley was sexually assaulted.

Defense attorney Dustin Kirby said in his opening that Riley’s death was a tragedy and called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing. But he said there is not sufficient evidence to prove that his client killed Riley.

Ross told the judge Monday that she expected to finish calling witnesses Tuesday, and defense attorneys said their witnesses should take half a day at most. Prosecutors had already called nearly two dozen witnesses over the first two days of testimony, Friday and Monday. That included law enforcement officers, Riley's roommates and a woman who lived in the same apartment as Ibarra.

Riley’s parents, roommates and other friends and family packed the courtroom Friday and again Monday and Tuesday.

Jason Riley, center, Laken Riley's father, listens during the Jose Ibarra trial at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Allyson Phillips, mother of Laken Riley, second left, listens during the trial of Jose Ibarra at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Prosecutor Sheila Ross's responds to Judge H. Patrick Haggard during the trial of Jose Ibarra at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024 in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard speaks during the trial of Jose Ibarra at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Jose Ibarra pays attention to a witness during his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)