Print
Solutions January 2006
Helping
Hands
The
business printing industry supports
hurricane victims.
Approximately
1,500 hurricane-related deaths
occurred in 2005, according to
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. Twelve-hundred
were associated with Hurricane
Katrina, which devastated the
Gulf Coast region last September.
At least one victim, David Dubuc,
worked directly in the business
printing industry. Dubuc served
as a sales representative at Best
Business Forms and Supplies Inc.,
New Orleans.
The
Times-Picayune reports that Dubuc
and his family evacuated to a
condo in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.
While playing with the children
on the beach, Dubuc’s nephew
was caught in a riptide and pulled
into the ocean, which surged from
Katrina’s intense winds.
Dubuc followed the boy while others
ran for help. Later, the nephew
was rescued, but Dubuc’s
body was found floating several
hundred feet offshore. Friends
and family conclude that Dubuc
sacrificed his life to save his
nephew.
Like
this one, the stories to emerge
in Katrina’s aftermath encompass
grief and loss. At its core, though,
Dubuc’s deed represents
something more. It exemplifies
not only an individual’s
selflessness, but that of an entire
industry. His willingness to put
others in need before himself
is characteristic of the many
individuals and companies in the
printing business who banded together
to support the afflicted.
Rising
Waters
At
10 a.m. on Monday, August 29,
Hurricane Katrina made landfall
near the Louisiana-Mississippi
border with 140 mph winds. Sarah
Nixon and her two boys had already
awoken to find the floor of their
Pass Christian, Miss., apartment
flooded. They climbed to the building’s
roof and watched as the water
rose higher.
“We
were up there for about 10 to
12 hours,” she says. “We
got there at daylight, and we
got down at dark. It eventually
became calm, and the water went
down.” The family was safe,
but their home was destroyed.
“We walked into our apartment.
The water was over our kneecaps,
and there was nothing left. The
refrigerator was turned upside
down, and the carpet was balled
up in the corners. We had dead
fish in our apartment, in our
bed. It was just a devastating
moment.
“My
oldest boy walked to the front
of the building....and there were
several bodies lying on the ground,”
she says. “He told me about
it, so I explained to my youngest
boy that he should look at the
sky, the trees, to get his mind
off the things we were getting
ready to see.”
The
family lived for a week in a temporary
shelter before Nixon’s brother
and sister, who live in the St.
Louis area, retrieved them. “It
was an elementary school, and
a lot of people were in the halls,
sleeping on boxes,” Nixon
says. “There were a lot
of people fighting over pillows,
blankets and shoes.”
An
employee at Jerome Group, St.
Louis, referred Nixon to the company,
and within a day, the company
offered her a job in its lettershop.
Jerome Group subsequently hired
two more Hurricane Katrina victims
from New Orleans. Cynthia Reed
and Patricia Vallery were rescued
from flood waters. Vallery was
using an inflatable mattress and
Reed was in a boat along with
her 83-year-old father, who had
refused to evacuate from a balcony
on the second floor.
Starting
Over
Joe
Webb, vice president of sales
and marketing at Formsystems Inc.,
knows a thing or two about hurricanes.
His Pensacola, Fla.-based distributorship
has weathered many deadly storms,
including Hurricanes Ivan in September
2004 and Dennis in July 2005.
After
Katrina hit, Webb and employees
visited manufacturing partners
and customers in Alabama and Mississippi.
They took water and 5-gallon tanks
filled with fuel. No fuel tanks
were available within 500 miles
of the hard-hit areas, so manufacturer
FormStore® Incorporated, Fenton,
Mo., delivered some to Webb. Fallen
trees had wrecked homes, cars,
pools and boats, so Webb and staff
helped cut them.
Two
months later, Hurricane Wilma
ravaged South Florida, and Formsystems
coordinated more efforts to help
the needy. They donated cash and
delivered goods to distressed
communities. Many businesses went
more than a week without power,
including fellow distributorship
Suncoast Marketing, Fort Lauderdale.
Formsystems delivered a generator
supplied by manufacturer MAR Graphics,
Valmeyer, Ill., to help Suncoast
Marketing continue working.
Wise
Business Forms’ Miami-Caribbean
division also suffered power loss
after Hurricane Wilma. To keep
production going, the division
forwarded job information to the
company’s Alpharetta, Ga.,
plant, which determined from customers
which jobs were a priority. One
customer needed an order badly,
so employees Juan Carlos Carmona,
shipping coordinator and Joe Mooney,
production manager, returned to
the Florida plant with flashlights
and retrieved warehoused inventory.
The company leased generators
to power equipment and lights—but
not air conditioning. Employees
returned to work and continued
manufacturing orders. “I
was extremely proud of the Miami
team pulling together,”
says John George, general manager.
“Everybody just dug in and
got through it.”
An
Outpouring of Help
Across
the board, members of the industry
did what they could to help. FormStore®
Incorporated and Response Builders
organized their sales, administrative
and manufacturing teams to assemble
a large quantity of kits to send
to victims in Mississippi, Louisiana,
Alabama, Florida and Texas. Printegra
Corp. (Printegra, National Imprint
Corporation and Synergy Label),
Peachtree City, Ga., and its employees
held a nationwide fundraising
campaign to benefit victims and
donated the proceeds to the American
Red Cross. Ennis Inc., Midlothian,
Texas, donated nearly 72,000 shirts
to the Salvation Army’s
Corsicana, Texas-based distribution
center. The shirts were shipped
to Dallas from Ennis-owned Alstyle
Apparel in Anaheim, Calif. Arnold
Trucking, a Florida-based shipping
company, donated the freight costs
and delivered the shirts to the
Salvation Army. The shirts were
issued to displaced people in
Dallas, Houston and the surrounding
area.
Independent
Business Group (IBG), Hayward,
Calif., matched any Red Cross
donations its employees made.
TST/Impreso Inc., which operates
a water bottling plant in Mt.
Ida, Ark., sent bottled water
to the affected areas. Specialized
Office Systems Inc., Phoenix,
helped distributors who needed
to service clients in Arizona,
and The Tully-Wihr Company, Hayward,
Calif., assisted companies by
working with their clients on
the West Coast.
PrintXcel,
a Quality Park Brand, based in
Englewood, Colo., launched a campaign
where PrintXcel distributors could
contribute to the Red Cross when
they place orders at any of the
company’s facilities. PrintXcel
itemized the contributions on
the distributor’s invoice
for future reference. “Many
of our employees had relatives
who lived directly in the path
of this storm and lost everything,”
said Deanna Day, senior brand
manager at PrintXcel, which was
founded in 1949 in Fairhope, Ala.
“Many of our customers have
lost their homes and their businesses.
It’s difficult to believe
the destruction left behind and
how it can ever be rebuilt. Hopefully,
we can provide some assistance
to them.”
Vancouver,
Wash.-based Boise Cascade employees
helped communities affected by
the storms in a variety of ways.
Derrick Legg, a containerboard
customer service representative,
and his wife, Corla, organized
a drive to replenish a Louisiana
town’s school supplies.
Boise Cascade transportation delivered
the supplies.
Two
Boise mill towns outfitted 300
displaced students with winter
school uniforms, and employees
in Boise Wood Products’
Inland region raised donations
to help victims. In the Gulf Coast
area, Boise Cascade donated plywood
to build walls, makeshift shower
stalls and sleeping areas at dozens
of shelters. Employees collected
or purchased toilet paper, paper
towels, cups, plates, diapers
and other necessities, while employees
at the company’s Louisiana
and Alabama operations collected
and distributed goods, prepared
meals and manned at least 15 shelters.
Some took in stranded families
or drove them to safety with relatives
in other areas.
Boise
Paper, Bensenville, Ill., contributed
pallets of paper to Gulf Coast
schools and relief agencies. It
also initiated a program to donate
money to the Red Cross for every
pallet of Boise SPLOX™ its
customers purchased.
Distributorship
Winbrook, Billerica, Mass., matched
employee contributions and donated
the funds to the Red Cross. “We’ve
always supported local and regional
human service organizations, so
when the Katrina disaster occurred,
we felt it was a natural response
to do something to help however
we could,” says Jonathan
Metivier, account services representative,
who spearheaded the program along
with Ilka Nelson.
2005
marked a number of firsts in hurricane
history:
•
First year with 26 named storms
•
First year with 13 hurricanes
•
First year with three Category
5 hurricanes
•
First with four major hurricanes
hitting the United States
Quick
Facts: 2005 Hurricane Statistics
Name
/ Dates / Max
Wind (MPH) / Deaths
/ U.S. Damage (Millions)
Arlene / June 8-13
/ 70 / 1
/ Minor
Bret
/ June 28-29 /
40 / 1 /
0
Cindy
/ July 3-7 /
70 / 1 /
Minor
Dennis
/ July 4-13 /
150 / 41 /
1,840
Emily
/ July 11-21 /
155 / 5 /
Minor
Franklin
/ July 21-29 /
70 / 0 /
0
Gert
/ July 23-25 /
45 / 0 /
0
Harvey
/ Aug. 2-8 /
65 / 0 /
0
Irene
/ Aug. 4-18 /
105 / 0 /
0
Ten
/ Aug. 13-14 /
35 / 0 /
0
Jose
/ Aug. 22-23 /
50 / 5 /
0
Katrina
/ Aug. 23-30 /
175 / 1,200
/ 80,000
Lee
/ Aug. 28-Sept. 1
/ 40 / 0
/ 0
Maria
/ Sept. 1-10 /
115 / 0 /
0
Nate
/ Sept. 5-10 /
90 / 0 /
0
Ophelia
/ Sept. 6-17 /
85 / 1 /
1,600
Phillipe
/ Sept. 17-24 /
80 / 0 /
0
Rita
/ Sept. 18-26 /
175 / 6 /
9,400
Nineteen
/ Sept. 30-Oct. 2
/ 30 / 0
/ 0
Stan
/ Oct. 1-5 /
80 / 100 /
0
Tammy
/ Oct. 5-6 /
50 / 0 /
Minor
Twenty-Two
/ Oct. 8-11 /
35 / 0 /
0
Vince
/ Oct. 9-11 /
75 / 0 /
0
Wilma
/ Oct. 15-25 /
175 / 22 /
14,400
Alpha
/ Oct. 22-24 /
50 / 20 /
0
Beta
/ Oct. 25-31 /
115 / 0 /
0
Gamma
/ Nov. 13-20 /
50 / 37 /
0
Delta
/ Nov. 22-28 /
70 / 0 /
0
Epsilon
/ Nov. 29-Dec. 1 /
70 / 0 /
0
