Survivors and Heroes Respond to Hurricane Katrina
Survivors and Heroes Respond to Hurricane Katrina
News of the incredible devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina prompted International Business Solutions Alliance (IBSA) affiliate Patrick Bush, president of Cleveland-based Bush Inc., to use his company's Web site to issue a call to action. He wanted to encourage others in the IBSA network to join his company in making a significant contribution to the American Red Cross. After all, among those in Katrina's destructive path were many fellow industry professionals, as well as members of the business communities that the independent supply channel serves.
Paul Edwards, president of Fenton, Missouri-based FormStore, had already made his own donation, but was further inspired when he saw Bush's challenge. After hearing people's stories and watching the news, Edwards began thinking that the American Red Cross just wasn't going to be able to do it all. He came up with the idea to create hygiene kits, school kits and "flood buckets"--five-gallon plastic buckets with lids that are filled with cleaning supplies--to ship into the affected areas. He eventually found a wholesale supplier for personal-sized amenities and a variety of sources for school supplies, and then set up an assembly line operation with members of the FormStore team. The hygiene kits consist of individual packs of facial tissues, toothpaste, a toothbrush, soap, a comb, shampoo and bandages all placed on to a corrugated backing and then laminated. Similarly, pens, pencils, bookmarks, rulers, crayons, blank paper, small toys and little bags of candy were assembled into school kits. The original goal of 2,000 of each type of kit has been exceeded, and Edwards has already ordered supplies for 4,000 more.
Cleveland-based Proforma also has made a huge difference following Hurricane Katrina. Just ask franchise owner Cathy Boykin, a resident of Mobile County in Alabama who has been a Proforma distributor for more than 10 years. She was away attending a funeral when the hurricane hit,
leaving nearly four feet of water in the home she had recently renovated. "Now, I have 3,200 square feet of muck. The house will have to be demolished," said Boykin. All she was able to salvage from her business, Proforma Diversified Solutions, is the tower from her computer, a
soaking-wet Rolodex and a trash bag full of paperwork rendered unreadable by water, mud and mold. She also braved the threat of snakes and other critters to reach into her water-logged desk and retrieve her steel ruler. "I've had that ruler since I started as a distributor, and I use it constantly to measure products," she said.
According to Proforma's co-owner and CEO Greg Muzzillo, only one other franchise owner besides Boykin was directly affected by the hurricane, and it was minimal damage. "We wanted to be able to take care of any Proforma family members who might be affected, so we set up the Proforma
hurricane relief fund. It raised more than $20,000, which we presented to Cathy," he said. "Proforma was also able to provide her with backup file information on her customers, including sales info for the last three years, and our proprietary software. She was able to make the
transition back into business almost overnight."
Boykin, who has started to visit customers and deliver a few orders, is delighted to be back at work. So is Sarah Nixon, an evacuee from Mississippi who contacted her former sister-in-law, a line manager employed at St. Louis-based Jerome Group, to say that she and her two young children were homeless and hungry following Hurricane Katrina, and on their way to St. Louis to rebuild their lives.
After a harrowing ordeal, the Nixon family finally made it to a shelter and eventually to St. Louis, where Andy Kohn, president of Jerome Group, found the former convenience store manager a position as a quality assurance inspector. Jerome Group also offered jobs in the company's
fulfillment operations to two New Orleans evacuees who are temporarily staying with one of Kohn's business associates.
Many of the employees were touched to see their employer's generosity. "They saw first hand that you can go through incredible personal tragedy and emerge on the other side better-off than you were before," said Kohn, whose company has a history of charitable acts. "It was a unique call to action, and I'm happy that we were given an opportunity to step up in this way," he said.
As the flood waters have receded, so have Hurricane Katrina's front page headlines, but the struggles and victories continue. Please feel free to share any of your stories with BFL&S by calling (215) 236-5478.
By Maggie DeWitt
The full text of this article appears in the November 2005 issue of BFL&S Magazine.